I just listened to the newest Bluggcast from our two favourite Second Life-ensconced Bluggies, known to us lot as Kosso and Jo. Kosso has just launched video.podcast.com. There's some funny stuff there! 
It looks like Content 2.0 is well underway, and there are photos to boot.
It's now half past four, London time, and the world has yet to end. This whole "Rapture" thing really is a load of hooey, isn't it, God botherers? Now if only they'd be willing to take bets. All these rapture people definitely fall in to the category of "gullible enough to be a nuisance, not gullible enough to make money from" (unless you're willing to really debase yourself - ala. Tim La Haye/Jerry B. Jenkins).
First it was classical, now it's Barry Manilow. The lengths people will go, trying to prevent the youth of today from shoplifting, eh? Think of the employees and the customers!
Sponsorship 
The Free State Project has sponsored this blog for the next week in support of their annual Porcupine Freedom Festival. Their advert is on the right hand side. I'm a supporter of the FSP, and the principles which underpin it. The FSP also sponsor the radio programme, Free Talk Live, which I call in to quite often, and email interesting stories in to. If you are tired of statism, why not consider moving to New Hampshire to help fight for liberty?
(Note on disclosure: you cannot "buy" a post - but you get a post if I like your product or service or agenda and you choose to advertise. It is dependent on my opinion, not on you advertising.)
Ultimate Mashup!
Do you want to take over the Office market? Here's how you do it. You don't even need to licence any proprietary software.
First of all, build an online word processor that's like LyX. Not like Word. If you've got a shimmering golden palace and a mud hut, which do you impersonate in trying to build the next generation's architecture? Impersonating Word means you are impersonating a bad product. Yeah, so make a web based version of LyX, and BibDesk and BibTeX. Then make a cross-platform open source tool that syncs up your documents and Bib database with the online version.
Combine it with an outliner and add in all the usual Web 2.0 hooks. That wouldn't be an Office replacement, it would be an Office destroyer!
Google Spreadsheet
I just got my Google Spreadsheets invite. Now I've got to try and fid a reason why I'd bother using a spreadsheet. It's kind of like programming, but without an arbitrary limit on the dimensionality of one's arrays and no real flexibility. Why bother? They should have taken a nice, simple scripting language (like Frontier?!) and put it online, and worked out how to promote "It's like a spreadsheet, only it's a million times more powerful and it doesn't look like a spreadsheet". This is a point that the folks over at Dabble DB understand.
Mike Arrington's screenshots seem to be pointing towards it's eventual use. There is also no "fill" function, which is very important, if you ask me. That's one of the things which Excel got very right. I still have no need for a spreadsheet, but if I were to use one, it would really need a fill function.
Google Spreadsheet won't go completely unused. It's a neat way of opening XLS files and CSV files.
Darby Shunned By Another Set Of Allies
Only these allies aren't nice people, they're bastards.
Austin Cline has some interesting news about that lunatic Larry Darby. Here's the brief story as I know it: Darby was involved with American Atheists, and started the Atheist Law Center in Alabama.
He briefly attempted to run - in 2002 - for attorney-general in Alabama, but ended his campaign after a few weeks. He was awarded "Atheist of the Month" for August 2002.
Then he invited David Irving to give a lecture, which earned him the scorn of a large number of atheists and organisations like the IHS.
He seems then to have left - perhaps been booted from - his position at American Atheists, although it would certainly have been nice if AA had perhaps put up a statement condemning Darby's actions. The Atheist Jew has a report that AA briefly mentioned Darby in an August 2005 newsletter, but it's really rather silly. He's getting huge amounts of media attention. There ought to be a clear statement on the AA website explaining the story and stating that his views are not shared by AA. If you Google for larry darby site:atheists.org, you get nothing but praise for his work, but nothing that states that AA isn't affiliated.
I don't think atheist organisations should take political positions, because it devalues what we have to say about atheism and secularism etc. Darby is an extreme case, though, as we shall see.
There is still an issue here. Darby invited Irving in July 2005, and was given the award by AA in August 2005. Did no thoughts cross the minds of those at AA?
Similarly, Scouting for All, another organisation he represented, has not publicly stated their opposition to Darby's view - even though their position statement says quite clearly: "We must not turn our backs on those who are being discriminated against."
Since then, Darby has attempted to run for office - for governor of Alabama. He first tried to run as a Libertarian, but they didn't want his company. Then he managed to register as a Democrat, and they cannot do anything about it, since the period in which they can object to his standing is closed.
Then he got involved with white nationalism and started playing the game of white nationalism. He attended a meeting last month of the National Vanguard in New Jersey, where he met people like Kevin Strom, David Duke and the singing duo Prussian Blue - Lamb and Lynx Gaede. He has also appeared in other white nationalist venues, including on a white nationalist radio show.
His views include support for the idea that the U.S. government is a "Zionist Occupied Government", saying that "Someone needs to speak up for the white man", and denying that the Holocaust happened. A quick Google search will bring up a large amount of material along these sorts of lines by Darby if you wish to see any more of this tripe.
And now, it's been revealed that Darby has had children with a Chinese wife, which has pissed off all these white nationalists who are dubbing him a "race traitor" and so on.
There is a moral issue here. Mr Darby's views are his own, and they are reprehensible. What is also reprehensible is the way that groups like American Atheists and Scouting for All have been completely silent. Yes, Darby has done good things in the past. That work is commendable. There is a duty though, when someone goes completely off the deep end, to say "Wait a second, this guy's a nutter and we don't agree with him!" In this age with quick and efficient communications - thanks to the Internet and blogs - there is no excuse for this. Yes, we should, in our role as secularists, be otherwise apolitical. But when someone who is affiliated with our movement becomes an extremist of any stripe, we should stand up and condemn that person and state unequivocally that they no longer have anything to do with us as a movement.
The silence, as they say, has been deafening. If you are involved with the groups which Darby has also been affiliated - namely, AA or SfA, you should contact them and ask: why haven't you stated, on your public facing website for Google and others to see, a statement pointing out that Darby's offbeat political views have nowt to do with us?
For more information, I can reccomend Eugene Volokh who has a detailed post about this and seems to have sensible views on the subject.
