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Showing posts with label admin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label admin. Show all posts
Friday, June 08, 2012
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Top 30 Libertarian Blogs
The Devil would like to thank all readers, commenters and contributors...Yes, it's that time of year again, when Total Politics publishes its Top Blogs lists. And—despite the... er... change in name and tone (and the event that caused it!) and the severe drop in the number of posts—I am very happy to see that your humble Devil is at #3 in the Top 30 Libertarian Blogs list (down one place from last year).
As always when these things come up, I would like to thank all of the contributors—past and present. I, and they, would, of course, like to thank you—the readers and commenters—who contribute so much to the blog (yes, even those who disagree with us). Your humble Devil is, once again, humbled.
There are some excellent blogs on that list: I am particularly pleased to see new entries from good friends such as Charlotte Gore, Chris Snowdon, Mark Wallace and The Nameless Libertarian—excellent bloggers and decent people, all.
Once again, thank you...
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Blog stuff
Your humble Devil is very busy at the moment, and likely to become even more so, I'm afraid*.
However, I thought it worth plugging the fact that Mark Wallace—now ex-of the TPA, generally excellent chap and occasional writer at The Kitchen—has his own Crash Bang Wallace blog, which is shaping up nicely. For those of you who prefer an RSS feed link (which seems to be strangely absent at his place) you can subscribe using this link.
Meanwhile, over at Iain Dale's, we receive the news that Mad Nad Dorries is to resume "blogging"—lord save us all.
Hmmm. I can think of another word—similar but not quite the same as "spasmodically"—to describe Mad Nad and her blogging, but apparently the word's not politically correct these days.
I do have a post about Cameron's so-called BigWaste of Our Money Society launch, which I shall try to post in the next few days.
In the meantime, however, toodle-pip!
UPDATE: I almost forgot that it's the time of year when Total Politics asks you which blogs you most like.
Iain Dale has the details, but essentially you need to send your top ten blogs—ranked in order of preference—to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
However, I thought it worth plugging the fact that Mark Wallace—now ex-of the TPA, generally excellent chap and occasional writer at The Kitchen—has his own Crash Bang Wallace blog, which is shaping up nicely. For those of you who prefer an RSS feed link (which seems to be strangely absent at his place) you can subscribe using this link.
Meanwhile, over at Iain Dale's, we receive the news that Mad Nad Dorries is to resume "blogging"—lord save us all.
UPDATE: And I can exlusively reveal that Nadine Dorries has resurrected her dormant blog. She tells me she will be posting "spasmodically".
Hmmm. I can think of another word—similar but not quite the same as "spasmodically"—to describe Mad Nad and her blogging, but apparently the word's not politically correct these days.
I do have a post about Cameron's so-called Big
In the meantime, however, toodle-pip!
Iain Dale has the details, but essentially you need to send your top ten blogs—ranked in order of preference—to toptenblogs@totalpolitics.com
Friday, June 11, 2010
Administriva
Your humble Devil apologises for his silence: not only have I been trudging around the country with work, I have also been revisiting my penchant for amateur dramatics. After lots of rehearsals and even more pints, I have been creeping the boards in a production of Great Expectations—in which I play a lower class shit (Orlick) and an upper class shit (Drummle).
Definitely no type-casting, obviously.
Ahem.
Anyway, blogging will probably continue light until after Saturday night...
Definitely no type-casting, obviously.
Ahem.
Anyway, blogging will probably continue light until after Saturday night...
Friday, May 14, 2010
DK Archives
Many people have bemoaned the fact that, with the demise of The Devil's Kitchen, many, many links ceased to work. Not to mention the fact that there was actually some pretty good stuff nestling amongst the 5,500 posts and millions of words.
I am also sensitive to Robert Sharp's argument that...
As such, I am contemplating following the advice given by a couple of commenters, which is to resurrect The Kitchen—at the devilskitchen.me.uk URL (which this blog is currently using)—but with a warning/disclaimer on the front page. This will ensure that all but the most recent links will work, whilst this blog would move to a new URL—possibly thedevil.org.uk—and would be maintained as my current site.
I'm still swithering slightly about this course of action, so please feel free to let me know your opinion in the comments.
I am also sensitive to Robert Sharp's argument that...
... deleting a blog feels like a book-burning. Its an unlikely form of self-censorship, and feels very wrong.
As such, I am contemplating following the advice given by a couple of commenters, which is to resurrect The Kitchen—at the devilskitchen.me.uk URL (which this blog is currently using)—but with a warning/disclaimer on the front page. This will ensure that all but the most recent links will work, whilst this blog would move to a new URL—possibly thedevil.org.uk—and would be maintained as my current site.
I'm still swithering slightly about this course of action, so please feel free to let me know your opinion in the comments.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
The Devil is dead...
Yes, it's true.
Finally, Wiggy has claimed a scalp.
And it isn't that of some thieving politician or some overpaid, jack-booted jobsworth. It's mine. Or, rather, it is that of my ruder sibling, for I am his twin—identical in every respect except that I swear a little less and indulge in fewer violent fantasies.
As many of you will know, I think that it is fair to say that The Daily Politics today was not an unqualified success, with Andrew "Wiggy" Neil concentrating not on the Libertarian Party or its policies (as I had been briefed) but on one single post out of the 5,500 or so on The Kitchen.
But, let's face it, he could have picked any one of about half of those thousands of posts and come up with some pretty damning stuff.
Don't get me wrong—I meant every word of the sentiments expressed. But the way in which I put it was, sometimes, just not... er... politic. In fact, as in real life, I enjoyed conjuring up repulsive and offensive images: anyone who has heard me in the right mood and in full flow that I can be every bit as perverse as on The Kitchen.
But, additionally, my blogging was driven—at least in the early days—by a burning anger and righteous hatred of just about anyone in authority, and this ire was fuelled as much by the real life circumstances that I found myself in at the time as by the unpleasantness of those who rule us.
And so The Devil's Kitchen grew as a cathartic outlet for my anger—and the language and imagery were equally violent.
As long-term readers might have noticed, my language has become, in general, far less vicious and less sweary. This was not, as some implied, because I sold out—it was because I was generally calmer and happier. Don't get me wrong: I am still disgusted by those who rule us, and even more repulsed by the idea that anyone can rule me—but these days it is more of a low, simmering rage. As such, The Devil's Kitchen had already become more mild (bar the occasional outburst) than in earlier years.
In the early days of blogging, most of us guarded our anonymity very carefully and I have always been twitchy about people using my real name. I remember when Shot By Both Sides was removed because its author, John, made some comments that annoyed a particularly powerful lobby—a lobby that found his name and then threatened to damage the business for which he worked.
Whilst not quite the same, something similar happened tonight. My boss was phoned by a very unimpressed friend who had recognised me on The Daily Politics. My boss—who, whilst knowing that I blogged, has never let it concern him—phoned me and expressed some disquiet. I should point out that he did not tell me to do anything and nor has he tried, in any way, to force me to do anything about this situation other than talk it over tomorrow.
However, it took me only a few minutes to make this decision...
The simple fact is that I love my job and I am now in quite a high-profile position: as the company grows, I am going to become yet more exposed. And the fact is, I want to be exposed.
But I want to be exposed because I am part of a company that has created great products and made people's lives better—not because I let my nasty imagination run riot when writing about how a union hypocrite didn't have the courage of her professed convictions. And neither that nasty piece of work nor Wiggy are worth risking my job for.
It is very difficult to delete anything on the internet and I am not going to pretend that I can do so. However, gradually the caches will fade away, and those parts of The Devil's Kitchen that are most damaging—the incredibly violent (though fantastical) demises of various politicos and their grubby little hangers-on—will fade away eventually.
And so, here we are—with The Devil starting with a clean slate. The tone of the blog will not change much—I am still a passionate libertarian and loather of our illegitimate masters—but the language will be much like my latter, less vitriolic posts rather than my more unpleasant death wishes. In time, I may transfer some of my better, more relevant, writing over here too. I hope that some of the authors—especially those, like The Filthy Smoker, who quickly became as much part of the fabric of The Kitchen as myself—will also carry on contributing.
As you will have noticed, the URL is the same and, I hope, the RSS feed will still work. The template is, at present, pretty minimal but I have been meaning to revise the look and feel—as well as making the blog as Accessible as possible—for a little while now.
I hope that all of you—readers, commenters, and contributors—will continue to partake of The Devil. I, for one, am quite sanguine about archiving my old material; nor am I totally surprised—this day has been coming for a little while (it was one of the reasons that I switched to a custom URL some time ago).
The Kitchen is dead: long live The Devil!
Finally, Wiggy has claimed a scalp.
And it isn't that of some thieving politician or some overpaid, jack-booted jobsworth. It's mine. Or, rather, it is that of my ruder sibling, for I am his twin—identical in every respect except that I swear a little less and indulge in fewer violent fantasies.
As many of you will know, I think that it is fair to say that The Daily Politics today was not an unqualified success, with Andrew "Wiggy" Neil concentrating not on the Libertarian Party or its policies (as I had been briefed) but on one single post out of the 5,500 or so on The Kitchen.
But, let's face it, he could have picked any one of about half of those thousands of posts and come up with some pretty damning stuff.
Don't get me wrong—I meant every word of the sentiments expressed. But the way in which I put it was, sometimes, just not... er... politic. In fact, as in real life, I enjoyed conjuring up repulsive and offensive images: anyone who has heard me in the right mood and in full flow that I can be every bit as perverse as on The Kitchen.
But, additionally, my blogging was driven—at least in the early days—by a burning anger and righteous hatred of just about anyone in authority, and this ire was fuelled as much by the real life circumstances that I found myself in at the time as by the unpleasantness of those who rule us.
And so The Devil's Kitchen grew as a cathartic outlet for my anger—and the language and imagery were equally violent.
As long-term readers might have noticed, my language has become, in general, far less vicious and less sweary. This was not, as some implied, because I sold out—it was because I was generally calmer and happier. Don't get me wrong: I am still disgusted by those who rule us, and even more repulsed by the idea that anyone can rule me—but these days it is more of a low, simmering rage. As such, The Devil's Kitchen had already become more mild (bar the occasional outburst) than in earlier years.
In the early days of blogging, most of us guarded our anonymity very carefully and I have always been twitchy about people using my real name. I remember when Shot By Both Sides was removed because its author, John, made some comments that annoyed a particularly powerful lobby—a lobby that found his name and then threatened to damage the business for which he worked.
Whilst not quite the same, something similar happened tonight. My boss was phoned by a very unimpressed friend who had recognised me on The Daily Politics. My boss—who, whilst knowing that I blogged, has never let it concern him—phoned me and expressed some disquiet. I should point out that he did not tell me to do anything and nor has he tried, in any way, to force me to do anything about this situation other than talk it over tomorrow.
However, it took me only a few minutes to make this decision...
The simple fact is that I love my job and I am now in quite a high-profile position: as the company grows, I am going to become yet more exposed. And the fact is, I want to be exposed.
But I want to be exposed because I am part of a company that has created great products and made people's lives better—not because I let my nasty imagination run riot when writing about how a union hypocrite didn't have the courage of her professed convictions. And neither that nasty piece of work nor Wiggy are worth risking my job for.
It is very difficult to delete anything on the internet and I am not going to pretend that I can do so. However, gradually the caches will fade away, and those parts of The Devil's Kitchen that are most damaging—the incredibly violent (though fantastical) demises of various politicos and their grubby little hangers-on—will fade away eventually.
And so, here we are—with The Devil starting with a clean slate. The tone of the blog will not change much—I am still a passionate libertarian and loather of our illegitimate masters—but the language will be much like my latter, less vitriolic posts rather than my more unpleasant death wishes. In time, I may transfer some of my better, more relevant, writing over here too. I hope that some of the authors—especially those, like The Filthy Smoker, who quickly became as much part of the fabric of The Kitchen as myself—will also carry on contributing.
As you will have noticed, the URL is the same and, I hope, the RSS feed will still work. The template is, at present, pretty minimal but I have been meaning to revise the look and feel—as well as making the blog as Accessible as possible—for a little while now.
I hope that all of you—readers, commenters, and contributors—will continue to partake of The Devil. I, for one, am quite sanguine about archiving my old material; nor am I totally surprised—this day has been coming for a little while (it was one of the reasons that I switched to a custom URL some time ago).
The Kitchen is dead: long live The Devil!
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Posting still light
Your humble Devil apologises once again for posting very little—apart from these posts apologising for the lack of posting—but I'm afraid that my real life work is intruding once again. Following another reshuffle, my responsibilities have moved from plain marketing to product management.
Small though this shift may seem, it means that I am now responsible for the development of a range of somewhat sketchily-defined and thus somewhat behind-schedule product lines. As well as this, I am still wearing a number of other assorted hats—including design liaison for a few clients, lead company graphic designer, information architecture process guru, keynote speaker at our regular seminars, and copywriter.
Plus, of course, I have a few outside interests on my curriculum—including the Libertarian Party (under whose auspices I am speaking at Exeter University Freedom Society next week), a possible part in a play, and one or two other bits and pieces.
As such, it is entirely likely that posting will continue to be light until sometime in 2011. Unless something interesting happens.
And no: the general election (probably) doesn't count. After all, the winners will either be the blue socialists, or the red socialists or the yellow socialists—where's the excitement in that...?
Small though this shift may seem, it means that I am now responsible for the development of a range of somewhat sketchily-defined and thus somewhat behind-schedule product lines. As well as this, I am still wearing a number of other assorted hats—including design liaison for a few clients, lead company graphic designer, information architecture process guru, keynote speaker at our regular seminars, and copywriter.
Plus, of course, I have a few outside interests on my curriculum—including the Libertarian Party (under whose auspices I am speaking at Exeter University Freedom Society next week), a possible part in a play, and one or two other bits and pieces.
As such, it is entirely likely that posting will continue to be light until sometime in 2011. Unless something interesting happens.
And no: the general election (probably) doesn't count. After all, the winners will either be the blue socialists, or the red socialists or the yellow socialists—where's the excitement in that...?
Sunday, February 07, 2010
Redesign and HTML5
A few weeks back, I did an Accessibility report on the Labour Party website (it failed, massively). During that post, I pointed out that this blog was not Accessible and that I would, to paraphrase Captain Picard, make it so.
This is still my intention, but I am going to go a little further—having found that I can support all browsers through various techniques, I am going to restructure the blog in HTML5 (and checking it all in this HTML5 Outliner!).
HTML5 is logical and neat—especially for a blog format website. Replacing endless
Plus, of course, these elements allow for assistive software to recognise the page structure in a meaningful way, thereby increasing Accessibility—a subject that my recent article in Ability magazine expands on.
By the same token, I shall also be making extensive use of CSS3 and, as I intimated in my post about the iPad, deploying some effects—such as CSS animations—that will only work in the latest versions of Safari (and other Webkit-based browsers, e.g. Chrome).
All of this is as much to ensure that I continue to develop my coding skills, and learn the new syntax, as anything else. Naturally, however, The Kitchen will still be useable by every browser—but I do not intend to deliver the same experience to every browser.
For those who are interested, the rough browser breakdown for those visiting The Kitchen is as follows:
However, whilst all of this technical stuff might be interesting to your humble Devil—and sundry other geeks out there—it is, ultimately, you people who read this blog. As such, if you have any suggestions for the design—e.g. perhaps I should be using light text on a dark background—please feel free to sound off in the comments...
This is still my intention, but I am going to go a little further—having found that I can support all browsers through various techniques, I am going to restructure the blog in HTML5 (and checking it all in this HTML5 Outliner!).
HTML5 is logical and neat—especially for a blog format website. Replacing endless
divs with the new block-level elements—such as header, hgroup, footer, nav, aside, section and article all make reading the site structure so much easier.Plus, of course, these elements allow for assistive software to recognise the page structure in a meaningful way, thereby increasing Accessibility—a subject that my recent article in Ability magazine expands on.
By the same token, I shall also be making extensive use of CSS3 and, as I intimated in my post about the iPad, deploying some effects—such as CSS animations—that will only work in the latest versions of Safari (and other Webkit-based browsers, e.g. Chrome).
All of this is as much to ensure that I continue to develop my coding skills, and learn the new syntax, as anything else. Naturally, however, The Kitchen will still be useable by every browser—but I do not intend to deliver the same experience to every browser.
For those who are interested, the rough browser breakdown for those visiting The Kitchen is as follows:
- Firefox: 40.97% (Rendering Engine: Gecko (Open Source))
- Internet Explorer: 34.22% (Rendering Engine: Trident (proprietary))
- Safari: 12.63% (Rendering Engine: WebKit (Open Source))
- Chrome: 7.11% (Rendering Engine: WebKit (Open Source))
- Opera: 2.90% (Rendering Engine: Presto (proprietary))
However, whilst all of this technical stuff might be interesting to your humble Devil—and sundry other geeks out there—it is, ultimately, you people who read this blog. As such, if you have any suggestions for the design—e.g. perhaps I should be using light text on a dark background—please feel free to sound off in the comments...
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Blog bleg
Is anyone out there a subscriber to the HSJ journal and would thus be able to get me a full copy of this article, please?
Please email me if you can...
UPDATE: thank you, duly received.
NHS IT's local future
27 August 2009 | By Dave West
The Department of Health has quietly turned away from central control of IT. But what will replace it? And what will happen if there is a change of government? Dave West reports...
Please email me if you can...
UPDATE: thank you, duly received.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
How many of me?
Via Timmy, whose score of 1 person is most impressive—especially since that person is probably the very same Tim Worstall...
| HowManyOfMe.com | ||
|
Sunday, January 24, 2010
The rights of freeborn Englishmen vs. European law...
... as articulated, brilliantly, by Lord T.
Very true, all of it.
Sorry for the lack of blogging recently—the continuing pressures of work, alongside a traditional bout of blogging fatigue, have rendered your humble Devil voiceless for a little while.
I shall be back...
It saddens me that in the bastardised ruins of what was once an educational system even children taught the importance of what happened at Runnymede are often told that the barons forced King John to grant rights, such as free speech, freedom from arbitrary arrest and imprisonment and the right to a fair trial. No, not quite so. The King was forced to sign a declation that he would not interefere with, nor abridge, those rights which were were the inherent rights of English freemen (and women too, Harriet) according to rank.
Our fellow Europeans may well enjoy similar rights, but they are rights which have their origins in constitutions and laws. The right of a German or Frenchman to free speech is a grant by law – essentially an entitlement rather than a right. Here, it requires a law to set limits upon that right, which in this Kingdom is (I’m sorry Professor Dawkins) the God-given right of an Englishman or woman from birth.
What I discovered during many days (and not a few nights) negotiating and dealing around the table in Brussels was that my colleagues were, with a few wonderful exceptions such as Count Otto von Lamsdorff, not just corporatist by nature, but inclined to the unspoken assumption that man was made for the state rather than that the state was made for man. At its worst, that became an assumption that whilst the citizen must obey the law and his rights were limited by the scope of the law, the state could do whatever was not specifically forbiden to it.
The basic assumptions underlying the two systems of law, English Common law and European law, are such that they cannot exist side by side.
Very true, all of it.
Sorry for the lack of blogging recently—the continuing pressures of work, alongside a traditional bout of blogging fatigue, have rendered your humble Devil voiceless for a little while.
I shall be back...
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Slow blogging
Apologies for the lack of blogging: real life has intruded. Our designer is on holiday so I am filling in for him, as well as doing my marketing job and designing and styling the workflows and user interface for the company's major new application.
In the meantime, Squander Two has written a superb post which pretty much echoes my position on this whole AGW thing: do go and read it, 'cos I certainly wish I'd written it.
I will mostly be travelling for the next few days—Birmingham, then Wales, then Maidstone—and probably working most of the next few nights; however, I do hope to be able to fit in some new posts in between churning out website designs...
In the meantime, Squander Two has written a superb post which pretty much echoes my position on this whole AGW thing: do go and read it, 'cos I certainly wish I'd written it.
I will mostly be travelling for the next few days—Birmingham, then Wales, then Maidstone—and probably working most of the next few nights; however, I do hope to be able to fit in some new posts in between churning out website designs...
Tuesday, December 01, 2009
November Statpr0n
Your humble Devil does not normally do statpr0n but this month has been particularly good so, if you don't mind too much, I am going to publish the figures—as recorded by Google Analytics.
The big spur has, of course, been the CRU documents leak: my early reports—especially the HARRY_READ_ME.txt post (linked to by The Register)—have garnered hits but by far the most popular so far is this post by the superlative Pedant-General which has just been linked to by, amongst others, the National Review Online.
And Guido commenting on the Etonian political monopoly didn't do any damage to the old stats either—although his referrers have been dwarfed by those of the US sites.
So, as always, I need to thank my contributors for their hard work—and also the other bloggers and forum posters who have done the lion's share of the work and whose postings I have merely collated. Thanks!
Y'know, altogether it's been an amusing few weeks...
- 101,776 Visits
- 51,137 Absolute Unique Visitors
- 130,479 Pageviews
The big spur has, of course, been the CRU documents leak: my early reports—especially the HARRY_READ_ME.txt post (linked to by The Register)—have garnered hits but by far the most popular so far is this post by the superlative Pedant-General which has just been linked to by, amongst others, the National Review Online.
And Guido commenting on the Etonian political monopoly didn't do any damage to the old stats either—although his referrers have been dwarfed by those of the US sites.
So, as always, I need to thank my contributors for their hard work—and also the other bloggers and forum posters who have done the lion's share of the work and whose postings I have merely collated. Thanks!
Y'know, altogether it's been an amusing few weeks...
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Travelling Devil
Your humble Devil is briefly back at Hell Towers the now, and I would like to offer up a big thank you to those fine, upstanding contributors who weighed in with their excellent contributions over the last few days.
I have a great deal to write about... oh, loads of stuff. Especially CRUdgate.
However, tomorrow I am peripatetic once more: this time I am travelling to Bristol for the LPUK AGM.
Back on Sunday.
UPDATE: as some of you have heard extraordinarily quickly, your humble is, indeed, the new leader of the Libertarian Party of the UK. Thank you all for your good wishes—let us see what the new year brings...
I have a great deal to write about... oh, loads of stuff. Especially CRUdgate.
However, tomorrow I am peripatetic once more: this time I am travelling to Bristol for the LPUK AGM.
Back on Sunday.
UPDATE: as some of you have heard extraordinarily quickly, your humble is, indeed, the new leader of the Libertarian Party of the UK. Thank you all for your good wishes—let us see what the new year brings...
Saturday, November 21, 2009
A note on the authenticity of the CRU emails
It is worth noting that we still do not know for certain that the CRU leak is all genuine and unaltered. However, it does seem that 60MB of mainly text files would take a significant amount of time to fake.
Further, there are no "we know that AGW is fake but we shall propagate it anyway, aaahahahahaa haha haha!" type emails, so any alterations have been done very subtly. Further, much of the correspondence does confirm many of the statistical tricks that we know were used to boost the credibility of the AGW narrative.
And we do know, for instance, that Steve Mcintyre's correspondence is unedited and unaltered.
What is, I think, most telling is that Real Climate published a post which is pure damage limitation—and did so on the assumption that this material is genuine.
Which would be a a real "so what?" moment—and then you remember that Real Climate is run by Michael Mann and other members of The Club involved in the emails and documents.
A couple of FoI requests have now been put into the University of East Anglia (where the CRU is based) which should (eventually) go some way to proving the authenticity of the material.
As such, your humble Devil is proceeding on the basis that the material is—at least substantially—genuine.
UPDATING: a list of The Kitchen posts, so far, concerning this is posted below:
And, just as a reminder, feel free to browse the searchable database.
I'm having so much fun...
Further, there are no "we know that AGW is fake but we shall propagate it anyway, aaahahahahaa haha haha!" type emails, so any alterations have been done very subtly. Further, much of the correspondence does confirm many of the statistical tricks that we know were used to boost the credibility of the AGW narrative.
And we do know, for instance, that Steve Mcintyre's correspondence is unedited and unaltered.
What is, I think, most telling is that Real Climate published a post which is pure damage limitation—and did so on the assumption that this material is genuine.
Which would be a a real "so what?" moment—and then you remember that Real Climate is run by Michael Mann and other members of The Club involved in the emails and documents.
A couple of FoI requests have now been put into the University of East Anglia (where the CRU is based) which should (eventually) go some way to proving the authenticity of the material.
As such, your humble Devil is proceeding on the basis that the material is—at least substantially—genuine.
UPDATING: a list of The Kitchen posts, so far, concerning this is posted below:
- Climate Alarmism revealed
- A selection of emails: Dr Keiller complains
- Real Climate responds
- Summarising the salient points of the emails
- The Englishman speculates
- Follow the money
- Harrabin leads the BBC fightback
- Random scandals: a conversation on dendroclimatology
- A note on the authenticity of the data
- Hacked? Or leaked?
And, just as a reminder, feel free to browse the searchable database.
I'm having so much fun...
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Technical hitch
At some point this morning, The Kitchen seemed to go off the air. The issue seems to be around the fact that Blogger does not like hosting blogs on "naked domains" and requires, instead, that you host on a subdomain: that is to say,
Obviously, when I originally set up my domain a few years ago, Blogger did not make this distinction: now, it seems, the policy has changed and thus the site went down.
This has pissed me off slightly—I am so frantically busy at present that I really did not need to be fucking about with this kind of thing—and I am going to re-examine WordPress as a possible alternative.
However, I hate writing templates for WP and I do like the simplicity of Blogger. Plus, of course, not only is Blogger free to use but also it isn't putting any strain on my server. In other words, I wouldn't expect a migration any time soon.
Anyway, we are (mostly) back now. It will take a little while for the domain changes to propagate throughout the web but, once they have, all previous links should still work.
In the meantime, work is taking me to Wales and back for most of tomorrow so blogging will be light.
Thanks for your patience—and all of the emails expressing concern.
Regards,
DK
http://www.devilskitchen.me.uk is acceptable, but http://devilskitchen.me.uk is not (the www. bit is the sub-domain).Obviously, when I originally set up my domain a few years ago, Blogger did not make this distinction: now, it seems, the policy has changed and thus the site went down.
This has pissed me off slightly—I am so frantically busy at present that I really did not need to be fucking about with this kind of thing—and I am going to re-examine WordPress as a possible alternative.
However, I hate writing templates for WP and I do like the simplicity of Blogger. Plus, of course, not only is Blogger free to use but also it isn't putting any strain on my server. In other words, I wouldn't expect a migration any time soon.
Anyway, we are (mostly) back now. It will take a little while for the domain changes to propagate throughout the web but, once they have, all previous links should still work.
In the meantime, work is taking me to Wales and back for most of tomorrow so blogging will be light.
Thanks for your patience—and all of the emails expressing concern.
Regards,
DK
Friday, September 25, 2009
Busy time
My apologies for the lack of blogging—your humble Devil is stupidly busy with the day job (which is currently bleeding into being a night job too). I'll be back on it as soon as possible.
In the meantime, Charlotte Gore wrote a rather good post on why statism is like having to make tea for the entire office.
Do go and read the rest, whilst I burn my backlog of work and compose a long post about drug prohibition (which has been discussed a lot recently).
"Yes, yes," I hear you cry. "But haven't you done that subject to death?"
Well, I have made my feelings fairly clear on a number of occasions, yes: however, when I read utterly evil crap like this...
... I have to comment or else my head might pop.
Needless to say, I think that the author of the above comment is a total fucking cunt who should be beaten to death with his own cock.
But, as I say, I'll elaborate later...
In the meantime, Charlotte Gore wrote a rather good post on why statism is like having to make tea for the entire office.
So in the office we use a collectivist method of solving the hot beverage allocation problem. In other words, we do brew rounds, or tea rounds. Rather than get your own drink when you want one, we must make a drink for everyone else in the office who wants one, and we take turns on a round robin basis.
I’ve been mulling on this pretty much all year, because I hate it. I really really hate it. I’m told I’m not really a ‘team player’—which is certainly true in respect of the brew rounds, but I’ve been doing my bit regardless for the sake of a peaceful life.
Today, however, I decided to put this question to the Internet: Is this the best way of solving the beverage allocation problem, or would it be better to switch to an individualist, ‘help yourself when you want one’ approach?
Here’s my argument in favour of the latter: Everyone requires and wants different quantities of tea and coffee through the day. Some will want just one or two cups, others (tea based lifeforms like me) will want one at least once an hour.
Under an individualist system, each person simply makes a drink for themselves when they need one—this means that supply always matches the demand exactly, and everyone’s happy.
My argument against the collectivist approach is nearly the opposite of this - supply does not match with demand, and because making a round of brews is a more onerous task than making a single brew, people tend to be less keen on doing their round when it’s their turn. The result is that supply does not meet the demand, because those with a higher demand for tea either have to do additional brew rounds when it’s not their turn, or wait until the person whose turn it is is ready to make one.
Do go and read the rest, whilst I burn my backlog of work and compose a long post about drug prohibition (which has been discussed a lot recently).
"Yes, yes," I hear you cry. "But haven't you done that subject to death?"
Well, I have made my feelings fairly clear on a number of occasions, yes: however, when I read utterly evil crap like this...
Taking drugs is a deliberate, flagrant, immoral act and those who partake in such actions should be severely punished. One role of government is to protect the individual’s liberty, but another is to protect the individual from themselves and others.
... I have to comment or else my head might pop.
Needless to say, I think that the author of the above comment is a total fucking cunt who should be beaten to death with his own cock.
But, as I say, I'll elaborate later...
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
I'd like to thank my agent...
... or I would if I had one—for it seems that you have voted The Kitchen into the Total Politics Top Ten Blogs once again. True, I have slipped from #6 to #9 but still your humble Devil is, in any case, ever so 'umble.Anyway, since I don't have an agent to thank, I shall, first and foremost, thank the Filthy Smoker for invariably picking up the baton when I am busy as well as for writing—let's face it—some of the best posts that have appeared at The Kitchen over the last year or so.
As always, many thanks to all of The Kitchen's contributors, commenters and readers—all of you have done a sterling job.
I'd also like to thank Gordon "Grandad" Brown and his Cabinet of spivs, fuckwits, pikeys, idiots, thieves, morons, incompetents, twats, bigots, cunts and weapons-grade cock-endsTM for continuing to provide so much ammunition.
Although, naturally, I really can't leave the podium without thanking Dave "spam!" Cameron for being a natural runner-up. I have no doubt at all that Davey and his merry band of nitwits will continue to provide a great deal of fodder for The Kitchen over the next year or so.
I should also make mention of the Liberal Democrat leader, but unfortunately I can't remember who the fuck that is.
And so I think that's it for another year...
Oh! No, no, no, shit, wait! Wait! Shit. Just remembered...
I'd also like to thank my wife—the lovely Bella—for being generally delightful and, equally importantly, deeply tolerant of the amount of time that I sit staring at my computer screen. Ahem.
Anyway, cheers all!
Now let's put this carnival to bed for another year, shall we...?
Thursday, September 03, 2009
Gentle progression
The Last Ditch's Tom Paine recently published his stats over the blog's whole life-cycle.
Indeed.
However, it made me realise that I have never actually looked at the year-on-year trend in The Kitchen's readership. So, like Tom, I too turned to Statcounter—the first counter that I put on the blog—back in August 2005, and generated my all-time quarterly stats (up to the end of Q2 2009).
Obviously, that was a while ago now although I do remember that, after nearly eight months of blogging, I was getting about 250 visitors a week (as you can see).
At the time, I was pretty pleased with that...
It may interest new bloggers to see how long it took to find readers. Many of my best efforts were in that period, but as you see they were read by virtually no-one. I still don't quite know why I didn't give up, but I would encourage anyone who has something to say to persist. At the very worst, though few of us will make a difference individually, we will together show future historians that we were not the bland, homogeneous mass the mainstream media's archives will suggest.
Indeed.
However, it made me realise that I have never actually looked at the year-on-year trend in The Kitchen's readership. So, like Tom, I too turned to Statcounter—the first counter that I put on the blog—back in August 2005, and generated my all-time quarterly stats (up to the end of Q2 2009).
Obviously, that was a while ago now although I do remember that, after nearly eight months of blogging, I was getting about 250 visitors a week (as you can see).
At the time, I was pretty pleased with that...
Friday, August 28, 2009
Top Right of Centre Blogs
All of the usual thanks and acknowledgements to contributors, commenters and readers for ensuring that your humble Devil is once more in a decent spot in the Top 100 Right of Centre blogs.
The Kitchen, Dizzy and Conservative Home have all dropped one place—knocked down by an insurgent Spectator Coffee House. Still, the Coffee House chaps are paid for their efforts and we—or, rather, Dizzy and I—are but poor amateurs, tapping away for few rewards other than catharsis, personal enlightenment and invitations to parties with free booze.
Anyway, here's the top ten...
You can find the full list here...
P.S. Your humble apologises for the sporadic blogging, but I am tremendously busy at present—mainly working to support the wife's vices. I'll try to post something thrilling at the weekend...
P.P.S. I have recently heard a lot of radio adverts for Microsoft Office. The version that they are punting is—proudly—announced as "Office 2007".
Office 2007? Seriously, which fucking moron decided Microsoft's naming conventions?
Look, I am sure that Office 2007 is jolly super, but we're nearing the final quarter of 2009 right now—Office 2007 sounds superannuated, even if it's not.
It's barking insanity, I tell thee...
The Kitchen, Dizzy and Conservative Home have all dropped one place—knocked down by an insurgent Spectator Coffee House. Still, the Coffee House chaps are paid for their efforts and we—or, rather, Dizzy and I—are but poor amateurs, tapping away for few rewards other than catharsis, personal enlightenment and invitations to parties with free booze.
Anyway, here's the top ten...
- (1) Guido Fawkes
- (2) Iain Dale
- (6) Spectator Coffee House
- (3) Conservative Home
- (4) Dizzy Thinks
- (5) Devil's Kitchen
- (14) Daniel Hannan MEP
- (35) Tory Bear
- (12) Archbishop Cranmer
- (8) John Redwood MP
You can find the full list here...
P.S. Your humble apologises for the sporadic blogging, but I am tremendously busy at present—mainly working to support the wife's vices. I'll try to post something thrilling at the weekend...
P.P.S. I have recently heard a lot of radio adverts for Microsoft Office. The version that they are punting is—proudly—announced as "Office 2007".
Office 2007? Seriously, which fucking moron decided Microsoft's naming conventions?
Look, I am sure that Office 2007 is jolly super, but we're nearing the final quarter of 2009 right now—Office 2007 sounds superannuated, even if it's not.
It's barking insanity, I tell thee...
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