Pigsaw Blog
All the pig that’s fit to saw

Archive for August 2005


The Rule of N is not sufficient

Though it irks be to be writing about sudoku once again (I think we can stop capitalising it now) it’s what I spent all weekend on, so it’s my own fault.
Previously I had devised a cunning rule to solve all sudoku puzzles, and I called this the Rule of N. Subsequently I got very bored [...]

My show at the Edinburgh Fringe

Okay, I haven’t actually got a show at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. Nor any other year’s, for that matter. But if I did have a show, I know what I’d be doing. I’d be performing e-mail spam. I’d read it out loudly and dramatically, with very quiet bits, and sudden big LOUD BITS, and then [...]

Simple voting

Yesterday I confirmed my electoral register details. I did it online. The process took me through about four steps. The first asked me to enter my reference number and password. Then there were a series of very simple questions. No graphics. No colour. Easy options. Sentences that the Plain English campaign would be proud of. [...]

New words from the OED

New words from — well, for — the new Oxford English Dictionary:
discoverage (n) - The amount of media coverage given to a particular story which is disproportionate to the story’s significance. Example: The Today programme spent about 10 minutes on the new OED this morning, but 9 minutes and 50 seconds of that was pure [...]

Tough love for Britain

Dave quotes this, and more, from George Monbiot…
I don’t hate Britain, and I am not ashamed of my nationality, but I have no idea why I should love this country more than any other. There are some things I like about it and some things I don’t, and the same goes for everywhere else I’ve [...]

Another shot for Showtime

As someone who (a) doesn’t live in the USA, and (b) doesn’t have a television, it’s only natural that I faithfully follow Johnathan Bernstein’s weekly column on US TV. I felt particularly sorry for Showtime, the US cable network, when he wrote last year that they always seemed to be the underdog against HBO, no [...]

The Beethoven CD that wasn’t there

This story has a happy ending, but it has a sad beginning: I lost my Beethoven CD.
I originally bought it a few years ago after seeing The Man Who Wasn’t There — a wonderfully sad film, with a wonderful tune that kept running through it which I wanted to put on repeat. But while the [...]

Mainly churches in the City of London

Some photos from a walk round London yesterday.

Tags: london

Coming soon, to a lecture theatre near you

Apparently…
According to the New York Times, the US military is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to send scientists on a screenwriting course in Los Angeles, with the aim of producing movies and television shows that portray scientists in a flattering light.
We look forward to…
Professor White and the Seven Dwarves - Professor White hides from [...]

Grand Theft Copyright

There’s much to say about the GTA Hot Coffee mod — some of it constructive. My personal concern is how we’re sliding unnoticed the wrong way down a copyright scale.
But before that, a brief synposis. The video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a wide and sprawling affair. The player is given pretty free [...]