Paulo Coelho is not the literary world's most active Web aficionado, but he's certainly its most prominent. The Brazilian author has sold more than 100 million books, which include 14 short story collections and the novel "The Alchemist." He has been a fan of the Internet since the early 1990s. He spends at least three hours a day online, ( Read more... )

I just left this on my friend Richard's blog when he discussed the "copying CDs is stealing" issue. I've been struggling with this for many years (one reason why I haven't made a CD in a while, I'm morally unsure of what it means anymore), but I'm slowly getting to a place where I think I am starting to understand this fully...

"Illegal downloading ( Read more... )

Just saw the end of BSG.

Bittersweet. In so many ways.

Goodbye. You were the best show ever on television.

At last my thoughts on the digital copying issue have finally been crystallised in this statement from Cory Doctorow, in the foreword to Little Brother:
...here's my pitch on why giving away ebooks makes sense at this time and place:
Giving away ebooks gives me artistic, moral and commercial satisfaction. The commercial question is the one that ( Read more... )

In celebration of the 4th of July, BBC 6Music is running Independence Day, where they play nothing but indie music all day long. It is the single best day's music programming I have ever heard. If you're not listening to it already, you should be. You can get it on DAB or Freeview in the UK, and via the Web anywhere. For the past hour they've been ( Read more... )

After far too long without an update, I've just posted a bunch of new articles on abrahadabra.net. I think you'll find them interesting, so go check them out please! I'm still looking for more contributors, so do feel free to sign up to the site and add your comments or even post an article ( Read more... )

I always figured Stephen Fry for a 1920s style Luddite, but apparently I was completely wrong: he's actually a Linux-head. His Guardian columns are full of the joys of Open Source software, and in the most recent one he raves (rightly) about the Asus EeePC...
...a kind of mini John the Baptist, a system that prepares the way of the software saviour ( Read more... )

For all those who contacted me after the broadcast of The Great Global Warming Swindle, which postulated that current global warming was natural and caused by the sun... the truth is out on that one:
Sun's activity not to blame for climate change

...there are no grounds for suggesting that there is a lag between solar activity lessenning, and a ( Read more... )

I have been wanting to see something like this for a good few years now, thanks to enjoybeing for pointing me to it. Mika Brzezinski, you are my short-term personal saviour of the week.

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