Are we in an age of spiritual machines? Yes, in the sense that coming from a spiritual perspective, nothing can exist without the spirit that informs and animates it. It depends on what you use the machine for: computers and the internet seem to be an extension or expression of the collective consciousness and are one step closer to developing telepathy. The internet is a key to human evolution and I reckon the machines will grow smaller and smaller until they fit into our brains, and the next step is full telepathy.
Do you worry about the dark side of the net? I don't worry about it in real life or on the net. There will always be the shadow side. Where you have light, you must have shade, and while the dark side of the net is disturbing and potentially hazardous, I prefer to focus on providing more light rather than waste energy worrying about the darkness. It only requires one candle flame to extinguish the darkness in a room.
How involved are you in the running of your website? My intrepid PA, Naked Nurse, does the hands-on running of the site but I oversee everything and decide on design, as well as writing almost daily in my Docbox. My site is dear to me - it's one of the first things I interact with in the morning.
Can you tell a lot about someone from a ringtone? Perhaps superficially - at least in relation to the mood they were in when they downloaded the tone. I try to refrain from judging people by appearances... but one with Flight of the Bumblebee is probably a bit suspect. I use the conventional ring-ring, as I find it the least intrusive.
Broadband? Of course. I'd go nuts if I had to do the amount of work I do online with a 56k modem. I'm with Knobotech and found the transition smooth. I'm looking forward to when the whole world has it. That will diminish the status of TV and bring an unprecedented show of creative talent to the world.
Favourite gadgets? I may have been propping up the IT industry single-handedly over the past few years with all the gadgets and gizmos I've bought, found to be useless and discarded. I thought I'd like the 12in PowerBook but have found it over-simple to use and fairly inflexible. A Canon Digital IXUS 400would be great. My favourite gadget/tool is a basic Advent laptop, which I've changed to run on Linux.
So you're a Linux convert? I love the whole philosophy of sharing. I've been using Linux for 18 months after becoming friends with Manuel the Catalan anarchist hacker, who educated me in the Linux philosophy. The idea appealed to my egalitarian sensibilities as opposed to the Microsoft philosophy, which doesn't sit well with me - the former being a philosophy of cooperation and the latter one of domination. But I was also fed up with getting viruses all the time, which you don't get on Linux.
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Barefoot doctor's bookmarks
www.2advanced.com
www.motiongraphiks.com
www.smokingpaper.com
www.gencat.net
www.mezzowave.net