Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Friday 27 September 2002, 6:00 PM
Friday
Friday 27/09/2002
Feverish activity? Imagine a whole medieval town infected with St Vitus' Dance during the Festival of Competitive Hayforking just after a cartload of amphetamine-laced itching powder spilled in the market square, and you'll be halfway towards the atmosphere in the office. Y'see, some bright spark had the idea that since we were all fully occupied creating and maintaining a Web site of international repute, we might as well do a magazine as well. Something to do with a desire to sell even more advertising, expand the brand, make money, dull stuff like that.
And so it came to pass, that various people brushed off their Quark experience, discovered the delights of making text fit fixed spaces on actual pages made of actual paper, had Proustian rushes from the smell of ink, and worked darn hard. It's done! ZDNetWeek, a pearl among publications and a shining light to the nations of the world, has come to pass. If you're a subscriber, you'll be getting your first copy early in October: we recommend you read it once only while wearing kid gloves, then immediately store it in a lead envelope filled with dry, inert gas for generations yet unborn. After sending in orders worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to the advertisers, of course: they like that, and so do we.
Like all good journalists, we're already planning our next publication -- perhaps a labs-based magazine doing in-depth reviews of hardware and software tied to trenchant news, inspired analysis and comprehensive how-to articles? Or maybe a home entertainment spectacular -- send us your plasma screens, kilowatt sound systems and huge leather sofas now, suppliers!
PS: From the BBC News home page today -- "The dog could be the next animal to have its genome deciphered, following calls from scientists." No news as to which dog it will be, nor whether the onward march of science will be affected if it doesn't come when called...
To have your say online click on TalkBack and go to the ZDNet UK forums.
Feverish activity? Imagine a whole medieval town infected with St Vitus' Dance during the Festival of Competitive Hayforking just after a cartload of amphetamine-laced itching powder spilled in the market square, and you'll be halfway towards the atmosphere in the office. Y'see, some bright spark had the idea that since we were all fully occupied creating and maintaining a Web site of international repute, we might as well do a magazine as well. Something to do with a desire to sell even more advertising, expand the brand, make money, dull stuff like that.
And so it came to pass, that various people brushed off their Quark experience, discovered the delights of making text fit fixed spaces on actual pages made of actual paper, had Proustian rushes from the smell of ink, and worked darn hard. It's done! ZDNetWeek, a pearl among publications and a shining light to the nations of the world, has come to pass. If you're a subscriber, you'll be getting your first copy early in October: we recommend you read it once only while wearing kid gloves, then immediately store it in a lead envelope filled with dry, inert gas for generations yet unborn. After sending in orders worth hundreds of thousands of pounds to the advertisers, of course: they like that, and so do we.
Like all good journalists, we're already planning our next publication -- perhaps a labs-based magazine doing in-depth reviews of hardware and software tied to trenchant news, inspired analysis and comprehensive how-to articles? Or maybe a home entertainment spectacular -- send us your plasma screens, kilowatt sound systems and huge leather sofas now, suppliers!
PS: From the BBC News home page today -- "The dog could be the next animal to have its genome deciphered, following calls from scientists." No news as to which dog it will be, nor whether the onward march of science will be affected if it doesn't come when called...
To have your say online click on TalkBack and go to the ZDNet UK forums.
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