Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Saturday 5 July 1997, 9:00 AM
Rupert Goodwins' Weekend Diary
At home today and tomorrow, on me hols. Was going to go to Glastonbury as usual, but had a sudden intimation of mortality and decided to sit in my Highgate fastness and write the Great British Science Fiction Novel. The gods rewarded me richly for this by causing all my pals (who went, and pronounced me mad for selling my ticket) to be visited by a giant river of mud. I had two hot baths a day, just because I could, and even managed to actually do some writing.
Tuesday
Friends return, muttering something about "that which does not kill us, makes us stronger". Never thought of Glasto as a Nietzscherian exercise in character building before. It's also an exercise in telecommunications these days; the site was saturated not just with soupy cow glop but optical fibres, twisted pairs and extra cellphone coverage. Gone are the days when one had to bring a pair of walkie talkies just to find your pal when he's drifted off-planet; just remember his Orange number and off you go. No public e-mail/Web kiosks, apparently, but lots of people want to do this next time.
One downside to the phones, though: when clutching a walkie-talkie, it was usually possible to walk into secure areas just by looking purposeful. Looks like it's back to blagging laminates again
Saturday 21 June 1997, 9:00 AM
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
Psion Series 5 day! Delighted to find before the press conference that the company has set up the Web pages for the new PDA, and although it hasn't linked them in they're easy to find by poking around. Get a quick blast out on PC Daily News before anyone else. Then we ambush Guy Kewney as he arrives from the press conference clutching one of the beasts: we shackle him to his desk until he produces the first review - again, as far as we know, anywhere in the world.
Wonderful, this Web stuff! Think it'll catch on?
Tuesday
One of the great things about this job is meeting famous people. I know one's supposed to be journalistically objective, but anyone who claims to be unaffected by schmoozing at a party with Bill Gates (only once, a long time ago. I'm sure he remembers) or chatting with Tim Berners-Lee about Web design is having a wee porky-fest.
Today, I get to talk to Arthur C. Clarke in Sri Lanka. OK, so he's over there and I'm in Pimlico, but the principle's sound. A boyhood hero. I can still remember the impact Childhood's End made on a young Goodwins; I'll never be able to talk to Asimov or Philip Dick, at least in this universe, but the inventor of the geosynchronous satellite and the creator of 2001 is on the line right now.
Only he's not. Indian accents say 'He's not in
Saturday 14 June 1997, 9:00 AM
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
Bonjour, mes amies. Aujourd'hui nous parlons Franglaise
Saturday 7 June 1997, 9:00 AM
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
Microsoft, my very favourite software company, has a big security announcement to make. In order to prevent people from downloading dangerous ActiveX components from the Web, the company says, the next issue of Explorer will classify Web sites into (I paraphrase) 'very safe', 'safe', 'dodgy' and 'don't touch'.
As an exercise in solving the underlying security flaws in ActiveX it's on a par with categorising areas of the UK as good, bad and indifferent. One wonders how AOL will cope with having its Web site stamped as 'don't touch'; under the proposed scheme, it's certainly impossible to say anything else about it, because AOL as a service provider has no way--and no interest--in filtering what its users put up. However, there are many good places on AOL where small companies and other groups can make some damn fine ideas available to all
Saturday 31 May 1997, 9:00 AM
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
Bank Holiday. Ate bacon sandwiches, wrote science fiction, nursed head after weekend of birthday celebration. It's nice to churn out words that don't have megabytes or baud rates attached
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