tired fools

Last.fm is down:

We’re really sorry, but due to datacenter temperature issues beyond our control Last.fm is currently offline. Please bear with us as we scramble to catch overheating DC/AC inverters… stay tuned, we’ll be restoring regular service as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience.
In the meantime, check out our twitter account for updates on the situation.

and it’s worth checking the twitter account. Just before the tweet announcing that the data centre is cooked is this:

The server with the longest uptime at Last.fm: 1244 days (3.4 years!) Can anyone beat that?

i’ve had a proper week off. no work, no other work, no other other work, nothing. it feels good. i say it again about the hay-on-wye festival, it’s good, it’s very good. i saw just one thing on my own (niall ferguson- excellent), and a bunch of stuff with the kids. a great experience. in fact the kids were so excited about some authors that they voluntarily queued up an hour before a talk to get a front row seat. bethan loved jonathan stroud, zoe - jacqueline wilson, zac - michio kaku. and the weather was good in one of the most beautiful places i know. recommended.

this evening i was cooking and zoe was tapping away at the mac in the kitchen.

zoe: what’s a night stand?

me: well, it’s like a small table that goes next to the bed to put a glass a water on, or a clock.

zoe: why is facebook asking me if i think sofia jones has ever had a one night stand, then?

My favourite TV show when i was growing up was Whickers World. I loved the guy in the suit pontificating on the world outside. This was back in the day when no one but the very rich traveled anywhere, when it took days to travel to Japan, for instance. Once a week he would report on the weirdness of abroad. He collected many awards and was the founder of the ’signed documentary’, which is all too common now. In his eighties now, Alan Whicker recently had a short series on the BBC looking back over his reports and revisiting the places and people he had reported on. I particularly enjoyed revisiting Nauru, a small island 2,500km from anywhere. It’s like something from a Kurt Vonnegut novel. An island whose economy rests on bird shit. At one time the highest per capita income in the world. It’s inhabitants opt to spend spend spend. The bird shit runs out, times are hard. In a last desperate attempt to make some money they put their last £2 million into a London west end musical, Leonardo. it fails after review night. they are now destitute.