The Grauniad notes an article in New Scientist based around funky science-related things to do before you die, like turn yourself into a diamond.
Archive for November, 2004
Some questions as to whether eBay is really a sensible model for civic discourse.
We’re building an eBay type service on one of our projects, so this is semi-relevant.
Have a look at the Scottish Executive’s own Gershon targets.
Tameside signs LPSA v2 keeping them well in front of most other councils. Not much on e-gov in the targets, but plenty of money / rewards for meeting them.
The Grauniad reports that a US campaign is behind the turmoil in Kiev. A difficult call this one. I’d rather non-violent protest using elections than removing unwanted administrations through force, but should the US engineer the result it wants? It’s a bit like reducing discrimination, I think: there is a very difficult line to tread between creating a level playing field and unwittingly discriminating the other way.
Interesting peek into the future in Korea. People don’t like using email because
The reasons given for shunning email are that it’s impossible to tell whether an addressee has received a message right away and replies are not immediately forthcoming. Still another reason is that you send messages through SMS or messenger as if you were playing a game, while doing so through email makes you feel as if you are doing homework or performing a task.
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I wonder if the same will happen here? I can’t see SMS or messenger overtaking email in my business - the trail that email gives is so important for avoiding finger pointing that I can’t see it going away. SMS and messenger aren’t often backed up, either.
If this is true, it’s a truly wonderful application of science. A little too late for Christopher Reeve, though. Shame.
A very informative survey of the future of IT in the Economist. The theory being that IT specialist skills in consumers will dissapear in the next 20 years, just as the requirement to have a mechanic on tap (which lead to the existence of chauffers in the early days of the motor car) died out.
The Ketchup Conundrum is simple to state, but difficult to answer: why do we only eat one kind of ketchup? I used to like a Sainsbury’s Italian ketchup, but I think they’ve binned it.
Ofcom is going to deregulate large chunks of spectrum and let market forces sort it out. Nice one, and would put us ahead of the US.
The Worst Jobs in Science has some nasties. Anal Wart researcher; tampon squeezer. Shudder.
There are some fairly serious problems with the Treo 650s which relate to a new filesystem that massively expands file sizes. Amazing that this wasn’t spotted in a beta or something. Maybe I should hold off getting one before going to India…
[Update: looks like PalmOne has worked out a route to fixing things. Good customer relations.]
Oh My God It Burns! tests whether putting rubbish vodka through a Brita water filter makes it better. They say yes, I say “is this an add for Brita?”.
Sherman’s Lagoon today reminds me of a silly story from my past: my mum finds me upstairs (age of five, maybe?) and says "why have you written your name on the wall of the staircase?". I say "It wasn’t me". She says "Yes it was. 1) your sister is only three and can’t write. 2) you wrote it backwards (M.O.T on the wall with T highest up the stairs), because you wrote it as you came downstairs, one letter at a time." Busted.
The Coast-to-coast walk tops trek to Everest. Now it certainly wasn’t as strenuous as Everest no doubt is, but we had a great time on the c2c. We did it backwards (from Yorkshire to Cumbria) rather than the direction Wainwright suggests. Highlights (off the top of my head): Garibaldi biscuits, finishing (in the sea), Katinka’s disbelief about how hilly it all was (she’s Dutch, btw), sunny first week, beer in Patterdale, Black Sail youth hostel, reservoir sheep. I’m sure there are plenty more.
Someone had a nasty run in with a Venture Capital firm. Some interesting thoughts there, summarised by saying that VC funding is very expensive and potentially painful for your firm.
1001 Free Fonts is what it says. Some good ones there.
The Onion runs a frighteningly real story about sponsored election booths.
Two articles that give me the willies:
- US Republican congressmen appear not to care about policy, merely that they win, and are happy to get the minimum vote: 50%+1.
- The Texas schoolboard is looking to cut "married partners" (it’s not specific enough) as a phrase out of textbooks (along with evolution, overpopulation and global warming)
Shudder.
