kierenmccarthy.co.uk

Very funny spoof trailer for a US version of the King’s Speech (which just won a bunch of Oscars), called the President’s Speech. From the Jimmy Kimmel show.

Yesterday, the news came through that Judge Walker in San Francisco had ruled that the controversial Proposition 8 – which bans gay marriage in California and had been approved by referendum two years ago – was unconstitutional. The ruling is quite an interesting read and may well set significant legal precedents further down the line.

The result was a march from San Francisco famous gay district, Castro, to City Hall, along Market Street. I caught up with the rally just as it ended the top of Market St and got some pictures of the march and the subsequent speeches in from of City Hall. You can see them below as a Flickr feed.

Continue reading ‘Prop8 strike-down rally’

Peter Serafinowicz is a funny man. I’ve been following him on Twitter for a while where he chucks in gags and puns all day. But it’s his acting that’s he’s best at – Shaun of the Dead, Couples Retreat etc – and that he’s most known for.

For some reason I decided to visit Peter’s website today and discovered that he’d had a BBC sketch show a few years ago (which wasn’t recommissioned for a second series) called The Peter Serafinowicz Show. And some clips from it are on YouTube and linked to on his site.

It’s pretty good – needs a little more comedic pace for a sketch show – but there are occasional flashes of brilliance. Such as the clip below, where he produces a version of Who wants to be a millionaire? set in World War II. I enjoyed so I figured I’d do a quick post so you could too.

Just received this from my Mum of all people. A good British gag:

“I live on the edge of the county of Berkshire in England.

“There is a huge council house in our street. The extended family is run by a grumpy old woman with a pack of fierce dogs. Her car isn’t taxed or insured and doesn’t even have a number plate, but the police still do nothing.

“Her bad-tempered old husband is of foreign descent but is still notorious for making racist comments. A shopkeeper blames him for ordering the murder of his son and his son’s girlfriend, but nothing has yet been proved.

“All their kids have broken marriages except the youngest, who everyone thought was gay, and two of their grandsons are meant to be in the Army but spend most of their time partying in nightclubs. They are totally out of control.

“God, how I hate living near Windsor Castle. “

A few weeks ago, Sapna and I had some engagement photos taken around the Embarcadero in San Francisco, by our wedding photographer, Peter Kwan. You can see them in a slide show below or by following this link.

I got married to Sapna this morning at Santa Ana Courthouse. I’m pretty happy about that. We do have a much bigger and fancier wedding planned for 3 April next year but since I’m leaving my job at ICANN, and since we really didn’t want to spend alot of time apart, we decided we needed to get married earlier so we can go through the American visa system with the minimum of mishap.

Anyway, it was sort-of the perfect wedding – small, simple, relaxed. Just a shame my family couldn’t make it – although we did have my mum and dad on the phone at the lecturn. So for anyone interested, here are snaps of the day, followed by a lunch and little ceremony we had at Sapna’s aunt’s house nearby. And below that is a video of the civil ceremony itself.

And here’s a video of the civil ceremony.

So I’ve finally updated the software that this blog uses – Wordpress – from 2.0.1 to 2.8.4 – which will mean nothing to most of you but cause others to wonder what the hell I’ve been up to.

I’ve also tidied up the page and fix a range of bugs so the site is clean and ready for some new posts. I’m still undecided how exactly to split up my two main blogs – kierenmccarthy.co.uk and kierenmccarthy.com. Or whether to just point them to the same place.

I’m tempted to make this (.co.uk) my personal blog and the dot-com site my professional face. But then I’m not sure I’d stick with that separation for very long and would find work posts here and personal posts on the dot-com site. Blogs sort-of dare you to be more personal.

Ah well, we shall see.

It seems that the Internet is catching on with the most powerful men in the world. Both the Pope and the new US president Barack Obama have this week announced new web strategies and told anyone that would listen how much they love this Internet.

The conversion is hardly surprising – both men derive most of their enormous power from being able to communicate directly to millions. And if there’s one thing the Internet does well, it is mass communication. Here the question though: who loves the Internet more – Obama or the Pope?

Let’s find out in a head-to-head competition…

Continue reading ‘Who loves the Internet more: Obama or the Pope?’

Yet another extraordinary statement has come out of Nominet – the .uk registry owner – today. This time, the chairman Bob Gilbert lambasts a “number of false allegations” made in a resignation letter from former director Jim Davies.

The letter was posted on the Nominet members’ private mailing list, nom-steer, and contains “sensitive and confidential board and HR matters”.

In it, Davies provides details of an executive compensation package through which he accuses the CEO of unfairly profiting from the non-profit organization, and also alleges that the previous head of IT was kicked out the company for raising a concern about the CEO’s behaviour.

This is just the latest broadside in a war that has been raging at the heart of Nominet for almost a year.

Continue reading ‘Nominet Board fight rolls on’

Singer Jennifer Lopez has filed papers against the owner of jenniferlopez.org and jenniferlopez.net, accusing him of cybersquatting.

The two sites are owned by one Jeremiah Tieman who lives in Arizona and uses the sites to display news, pictures and videos of and about the singer and includes a disclaimer at the bottom stating that the sites are fan sites and are not endorsed by Lopez. However, both sites also include prominent ads and links through to affiliate sites.

Case D2009-0057 was filed last week with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) by Lopez’s charitable foundation – which support women and children on low incomes – rather than her hard-hitting IP lawyers Fross, Zelnick, Lehrman and Zissu who are the registered owners of Lopez’s dotcom website.

Continue reading ‘Jennifer Lopez fights cybersquatting case’