Cyberpunk, Spirituality and Technology - The Voidspace Blogspot

Feeling Friendly

Yup, I'm feeling friendly.

My Friends Page is now online - hurrah. Hmmm... it would be nice to have more friends though.

Oh.. and seeing as I'm in a talkative mood, this is my chance to brag about something utterly irrelevant. I released the latest version of ConfigObj/Pythonutils [1] yesterday - and had two hundred downloads within twenty-four hours. Wow - I'm well chuffed.

[1]	Some Python code I develop for my own projects. I make it available as Open Source for other people though.

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Posted by Fuzzyman on 2005-10-19 08:44:35 | |
Categories: Website, Life

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The Further Adventures of Ping!

I've found a useful online pinging service.

Pingomatic.com will ping lot's of different services and directories when you update your blog. That's jolly nice of them.

This means that whenever I make a new post these services will update me in various directories. As a side effect it provides quite a list of blog directories - so I'll make sure my blogs are listed in all of them. sigh I think I'm getting the hang of this.

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Posted by Fuzzyman on 2005-10-17 14:46:37 | |
Categories: Website, Blog On Blogging

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Voidspace Competition Winner

The Voidspace MirrorMask competition has finished. We had many more entries than we expected - and only two people gave incorrect answers.

Thanks to all those who entered - and commiserations if you didn't win. Better luck next time.

The answers are :

1. Q: What is the name of the character dream in the Sandman Graphic novels ?

   A: He goes by many names. The name he is most often referred to by, is Lord Morpheus. His other names include Oneiros, Kai'ckul, or even Daniel.

2. Q: Name one of the children's books that Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean have collaborated on ?

   A: Dave McKean and Neil Gaiman have collaborated on two children's books. They are called The Day I Swapped My Dad For Two Goldfish and The Wolves in the Walls.

3. Q: What is the name of the main character in MirrorMask ?

   A: The main character in MirrorMask is a 15 year old girl called Helena Campbell. In the film she is played by Stephanie Leonadis.

So the moment you've all been waiting for, the names of the winners. We have three US winners and three European winners. The prizes are from a selection of collectibles and posters of the film.

The winners in America should receive their prizes direct from Noise Marketing shortly. The prizes for the European winners are on their way to me - and I'll send them on as soon as they arrive.

The three US winners are :

1. Anna Mulch, Springfield IL.
2. Robert Scott Martin, New York.
3. Zee Grega, Seattle.

The three European winners are :

1. Daniel Thomas, UK.
2. Jose Dunn, Portugal.
3. Laure Simon, France.

Congratulations to all of you. Don't forget to check out the rest of Voidspace.

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Posted by Fuzzyman on 2005-10-17 13:43:19 | |
Categories: Cyberpunk

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For and Against Journalism

In my last entry I explored some of the technology and frippery associated with blogging.

I've got my blog listed in a few directories, I've got the right meta data in my html, and so on. Hopefully more people will now find my blog, and when they do it will be easier for them to read [1].

However, the only way to really build up an audience [2] is to write quality material. The whole point of my blog is as a medium of expression - a way to explore the issues I'm interested in and develop my ability to communicate in a relevant way. It's not merely a way to explore blog technology.

This leaves me with a choice - what type of content should I put in my blog. There are two different models I'd like to mention :

• The journal style of blogging.

  This of course is the real root of the world journalism.

  It means keeping a journal - an online diary. This is how many (most) people see weblogs. They're a place to keep people up to date with personal news and opinions.

  A lot of my blog entries are like this - however it's possibly the least interesting aspect of blogging. It can only appeal to the immediate circle of people your are in involved with (whether in the real or the virtual world). That is unless your life is really that much more interesting than everyone else's.

  There's nothing wrong with using a writing style that allows people to get to know you. In fact there's a lot right with that. But that should be in the context of having something to say.

  The golden rule of blogging (which I'll work towards someday...) is - only blog about things which you either have particular expertise or particular passion. Preferably both of course.

• The article style of blogging.

  This is a much rarer style. It could also be called the only say something, when you have something worth saying style of blogging.

  My hero of this kind of writing is a programmer called Joel Spolsky. He doesn't post personal entries (other than occasional news about his company or it's software) - but posts complete articles.

  He has an interesting and informative style. Whilst neither his opinions, nor his style, suit everyone - he is a very good writer... with lots of readers.

  Because he mainly posts longer, well thought out, articles [3] he also posts more infrequently.

As this blog also carries news about the website, I don't think I can move away from the journal style altogether. I would like to find the synthesis of the two styles.

In some ways these last two entries are a bit closer to the article style. I've taken a specific issue and explored it. I'd like to do more of this in the blog in future.

[1]	Although currently my feed only has a summary of each entry not the whole entry. This means people have to come to my website to read my blog.

[2]	Or even better - build a community of active participants.

[3]	Which some people say isn't a blog at all.

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Posted by Fuzzyman on 2005-10-15 10:56:24 | |
Categories: Blog On Blogging

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