This one’s posted under the ‘Indefinable Craziness’ category for a reason, dunnoe where it came from it just appeared in my scribblings one day. Scribblings of which I haven’t been doing enough of for a long time, but I hope to continue to do from now on… scribblings done while on the phone tend to be particularly good.

In fact, I seem to remember reading an article about that before, how scribbling while doing other tasks brings out subliminal work which can be really inspirational.

This one was just scribbled while lounging about one day. Then transcribed to digital format via Flash.

Yup, BifSniff is expanding. Our corporate headquarters were all a-buzz with the news recently as the board of directors announced to stockholders that the first quarter of 2007 was a time for celebration as we welcome several new contributors!

As you can see Al is already working hard, Rich.. is following on his heels, I’m sure we’ll see something from him soon and a third new boy is about to be introduced next week.

You will recognise Al and Rich.. as regular commenters if you hang around here at all.

We look forward to seeing what new heights of insanity all this results in.

People are asking where the cartoons are of course, and it’s true, we are no longer doing one a week at the moment. We are still discussing the exact fate of the weekly cartoon, we may change the format a little and continue to produce something weekly, or we might decide that it will be a more random appearance!

You’ll know as soon as we do!!!

Apologies to those who have been wondering why the cartoons on their sites haven’t been updating…

Back in the 80’s ‘Max Headroom’ was (supposedly) an animated computer talk show host. The show was successful in the UK. Its origins were in the USA, where the TV/Movie was actually based on a reporter being replaced by a computer generated version of himself. This was set in a TV dominated future world. So much for TV’s dominance, thank you YouTube!

Today we are interacting with computer generated customer service systems and animations. For example AT&T have Ask ‘Allie’, I wouldn’t even click on it again. IKEA have ‘Anna’. I’ve taken the piss out of Anna a lot, due to an IKEA created frustration but there doesn’t seem to be any real AI behind her.

Now we have a truly animated, somewhat AI bot called ‘George’ over at Jabberwacky. The animation is shite but George is based on millions of chat room interactions and mathematical things like algorithms etc. George is learning from human chat interaction all the time. He gives appropriate and somewhat weird answers but can hold a conversation. Hopefully George or his programmer will work out some of our human quirkiness he has inherited over time. (Bif you’re his stunt double! lol) Our near future it seems, will have more intelligent AI’s giving us tech support online, which is good for 24/7 communication. But what do we do with our human frustrations?

Just finished reading ‘The Corner‘ by David Simon and Edward Burns. Can’t recommend it enough. The book is about people living in West Baltimore, caught up in the drug corners, either through addiction or dealing or by proximity to both.

It’s takes a long hard look at the so-called ‘Drug War’ in America and the effect it has really had.

David Simon was a Baltimore Sun crime reporter, he wrote a book called ‘Homicide: A Year on the Killing Streets‘, for which he spent a year embedded with the police, and it was made into a tv series. He then went on to co-author ‘the Corner’ with Edward Burns, a teacher in Baltimore who had served 20 years in the police department.

David Simon met Edward Burns, in or around 1985, when he was looking for sources within the Baltimore Police department for an article on a drug trafficker called ‘Little’ Melvin Williams. Simon was obviously impressed by Burns, and when Burns left the police force, Simon says it just made sense to collaborate on ‘The Corner’. Simon convinced Burns to put off getting his teaching qualification for a year after he retired from the force, so that they could write ‘The Corner’ together.

The two went on to create ‘the wire‘ - which both myself and Bif are big fans of. In fact, I was given it for Christmas by a friend of mine who knows what a huge fan of ‘The Wire’ I am (thanks Eoin!!).

As an aside, ‘Little’ Melvin Williams did time, came out with religion and got a part in ‘The Wire’!

I launched into reading the book without even reading the cover, and I was about two thirds of the way through the book when I came to some photographs of the characters and realised, on inspecting the cover, that it’s a true story.

Simon and Burns actually spent that year on the corners in West Baltimore writing what actually happened to these people.

It reads so well, and contains such fascinating material that I had assumed it was fiction. The stories are also interweaved exceptionally well with social commentary that doesn’t interrupt the reading of the book the way you might expect.

The book gives an amazing insight into the lives of these people, and in the case of the drug addicts, allowing you to empathise with a way of life that we have become used to boiling down to a two dimensional caricature. The book also examines the politics which have failed these people, and calls for change.

If you have been watching the Wire at all, this is a great companion piece as it gives a more full understanding of the way of life in West Baltimore, and it’s also interesting to note some of the inspiration perhaps for characters or events in ‘The Wire’.

‘The Corner’ was made into a mini-series which I would like to see - if anyone knows where to get it, do let me know!

Here’s a lesson in unbiased reporting from Irish state broadcaster, and tv license fee recipient, Radio Telefis Eireann. An Oireachtas Commitee hold a public consultation on new broadcasting legislation, part of which would expand the scope of the television license to cover mobile and internet content etc. Up steps technology expert Ronan Coy to offer his opinion. RTE news quote him as saying…

…television can include anything that is made visually available to the consumer, including developments such as Internet-based television stations and video blogging.

Which earns both RTE and Ronan Coy the wrath of Feckoff.net. Only Ronan himself sees the post and points out that he wasn’t actually speaking in support of the new legislation, quite the contrary.

I’m the Ronan Coy that made those comments but they are taken out of context… I was referring to the definition in the new Broadcasting law. I am arguing against this new law and its crazy implementation. I stated that the new law would include any device capable of recieving a TV signal which is total bullshit. As far as I am concerned YouTube, video blogging, molbile TV should not be included as forms of TV subject to a license, unfortunately the new law wants to change all that. I want to have the law modified or scrapped entirely as there are other ways for RTE to make its money.

As the man says, so much for the independent media. Here’s what I say. If RTE can’t manage on the money they get or can’t think of alternative ways to earn, let’s take the fucking license fee off them, kick Pat Kenny, Joe Duffy and Ryan Tubridy out on their over-paid arses and give the bobs to TG4, who, even with their meagre resources, have at least attempted to fill the remit of a public service broadcaster.