a nice look a the US Supreme Court judges betting on election results. Funny or worrying? I’m not sure - they’re allowed to express political opinions, aren’t they?
Archive for October, 2004
Apparently xmas is coming on the web, too. Some nice ideas on how to make finding that perfect gift even easier.
Islington isn’t great at waste. Management of it, that is. It’s mostly down to the contract with ICSL / Accord, I reckon.
Saw a great flamenco-ish dance show yesterday called Flamenco Directo. A slightly snotty review is available from the Stage. From my ignoramus perspective, it was great entertainment and great dancing.
Open source appears to be OK for use in UK government circles, and is rising in Australia as well.
A small but growing repository for philosophy papers.
The government is thinking about an eBay-style marketplace for goods and services. It’s an interesting idea - as they suggest, why not let the private sector build it and run it under licence and then it doesn’t really matter if it works or not. Interesting to see how services might work in this approach, as well.
Apparently the UK public has an appetite for using government services online, but doesn’t know that they are there.
Nice, detailed article on how RFID tags work.
Some thoughts on what will happen to e-Government in the US after the election (whoever wins).
What happens if a "fuzzy" bureaucracy is computerised into computability and determinism? Some thoughts are here.
A note that suggests that Watmore (the new CIO for government) presided over some nasties at Sainsburys. Did he?
Jakob makes a valid point: the scale-invariance of the internet means that thieves can affect a massive number of people (millions, potentially) in a very simple manner. Unlike your local car thief, who can only really steal cars in a limited area, and certainly not across countries in a short space of time. Essentially, the best car thief in the world is pretty well always living down your street, not only 1% likely to. So how can we protect against this?
Editorium has some really nice articles about clever stuff you can do with Word.
I have to have a Treo 650. Simple as that. Let’s hope Orange get it out before xmas.
The sort of thing that only I will find interesting: what are the greatest equations in physics to date.
The Talent Myth asks whether smart people are over-rated. I hope not! From my quick scan of the document, I think it is really saying that smart people need measuring just like anyone else, and once you’ve measured them, they will not be as standout as they might be on personality and "smarts" alone. Which makes sense. I’m secretly glad I chose the "good manager" options on the case study halfway through!
Idly thinking about an in car navigation system and came across the TomTom Go. a) it’s named after me (not) and b) they have just open sourced their OS (it’s based on Linux). Should allow for some nice modifications over time. Having watched the demo, I like the 3d approach, although my instincts told me I wouldn’t.
Is That a Pilot in Your Pocket? discusses a recent experiment which removed rat neurons, got them growing new connections and then taught them to fly a flight simulator. Brain in a dish, anyone?
