the IT blog

Anil posted a good analysis about the PDF format in the publishing context and its impact on user experience with documents. featuring an interessting discussion.

In our That's Why W. Is Funny series it's 'hail to the thief' once again as he took the stage on his (surprise) visit to Iraq.

Lars Von Trier's film Dogville has been out for a while now. At his film studios in Denmark they've built up their own community. And they indulge in teasing everybody they do business with: Teasing is very much a part of the Zentropa ethos. For instance, far from being bothered by his partner's travel fears, Peter Aalbaek Jensen embraces them. 'As I always say,' he grins, 'that way, Hollywood will never be able to grab him. I show him any kind of newspaper article about flights crashing and ferries going down.' Jensen does a lot of perverse things. He made Japanese buyers play table tennis to determine the price for Dogville. When tempers began to fray, he made everyone in his office wear slippers. And he once hospitalised five leading Swedish clients after pouring vodka on the stones in the Zentropa sauna.

Love Actually is brilliant. Certainly not the intellectual kind of movie, but hilariously entertaining. But Americans don't seem to get it. A.O. Scott is far too reasonable in his article. C'mon mate, it's not supposed to be what you want it to be. (maybe the dictionary helps) It is an indigestible Christmas pudding (better: a piece of romantic fluff as the times put it) and I don't see any reason why a film mustn't be that. It's box office no. 1 in Britain. The people like it and laugh about it. Richard Curtis and the people at working title just know how to do it, how to write and compile it. Very professionally indeed. They certainly know how to woo the audience. It may also work because finally this film just expresses freely the opposition of most British people towards US politics (Hugh Grant as the Prime Minister). I wonder why Scott didn't mention Billy Bob Thornton in the role of the president.
After all it's a perfect Xmas comedy, much to laugh about, especially Bill Nighy with a fabulous performance of an aging rock star attempting a comback with a Xmas no. 1 single. Much more to say about this...but read...
the Guardian's coverage
Independent's cut

London's new monument is cracking up. The new Swiss Re Tower has its first cracks all over the building, The cracked glacing is about to be changed. Still, that doesn't help to fill the empty 25 floors of office space...

"If you hope to have a career in music, you might want to get involved in porn - it's the one place music is consistently used."
Moby, on the music-business slump. [Intelligencer]

Last week, Bush said he was not bothered by the planned protests. "I'm so pleased to be going to a country which says that people are allowed to express their minds," he said. "That's fantastic. Freedom is a beautiful thing."
whatev.

Jacques Peretti's 48 People Who Should Be Shot in Hollywood and Vicent Gallo's Hollywood feud.

After all she has done this year, now we could even see her crying on TV. And then the recent gossip about her first OD... Well, in the end it all fits into one big marketing mix.

...but .. no, I'm not gonna post about ... well, the transcript is better anyway! ... even though, I'd really like to get more traffic on this site....

I know we're getting a little Spiers obsessed here recently. But there's an interview by Zulkey, which I have to file on this blog anyway. She's coming across much more professionally. *sad*

Poor ES must have sufferd sever stress or whatev ever since that squawking 'bout gawker happend. Well, we know what she looked like at college. That's the way she presented herself in her early stage of achiving blogger stardom. Doing Gawker she promoted herself on her then new blog like that: And now - at the Kicker she looks a bit altered again. . So what happend?

Watch the end of the world.