Published on
April 29, 2009 in
Reading.
Fascinating quote from Keynes in a McK article which sadly descends into a sales pitch for scenario planning (not that I’m against it, just the sales pitch).The inhabitant of London [in August 1914] could order by telephone,sipping his morning tea in bed, the various products of the wholeearth, in such quantity as he might see fit, and reasonably expecttheir early delivery upon his doorstep; he could at the same moment andby the same means adventure his wealth in the natural resources and newenterprises of any quarter of the world, and share, without exertion oreven trouble, in their prospective fruits and advantages; or he coulddecide to couple the security of his fortunes with the good faith ofthe townspeople of any substantial municipality in any continent thatfancy or information might recommend
Published on
April 28, 2009 in
Science.
Although it has been used as a description of my hair in the sunlight, this time I mean the galaxy we live in. This isn’t it, but it is what we think it looks like.
Published on
April 28, 2009 in
IT.
McK has argued that cloud computing isn’t necessarily a panacea for larger businesses. There’s been some serious argument about their numbers. For a smaller company, I can’t see much reason to roll your own. The likes of Amazon have thought through all of the scaling, redundancy, backup, power, resilience options that you just don’t have time to.
Published on
April 28, 2009 in
Science.
You’ll quite often find something interesting (read: supporting your point of view) if you analyse a subgroup of an otherwise negative larger group. This one should be taught alongside the “screening for very low probability events” problem.
Published on
April 28, 2009 in
Science.
Extraordinary that people are more worried about terrorism than the economy and that they think everyone else is different. We’re clearly all insane. Then again, since when are surveys ever really valid?
Published on
April 27, 2009 in
Science.
I love starting a submission to a subcommittee discussing CO2 emissions with two quotes from the bible (summary: we don’t get to chose to destroy the world, that’s god’s purview, so CO2 emissions can’t be an issue for us). I wonder how many people really take this stuff seriously? One of the benefits of freedom of speech: the truly wacky opinions and positions can be seen for what they are.
Published on
April 27, 2009 in
Personal.
Five minutes for a printed to order paperback. Neat. But I’m trying to buy second hand where possible: why create yet more books if we don’t need them?
Published on
April 27, 2009 in
Reading.
Some great pictures from behind the scenes of the first 100 days. It does look a little like a version of The West Wing. I chose this picture because I like the idea that he was thinking before he spoke.
Published on
April 24, 2009 in
Reading.
I very much liked the iBus technology (not that I knew what was, then) whose voice prompts helped me get off at the right stop on an unknown route. Previously I’d been using Google Maps’ cell-tower location feature to guide me in. I liked the spin the Mayor’s office has put on it: the project had started in at least April 2007, quite a while before Boris was elected.
Published on
April 24, 2009 in
Reading.
I think the Russians might have this one right as well: $1.50 for standard, $2 for High Def films. I’m trying a download of Frost/Nixon as a tester (update: about two hours for the download on normal BT 8Mb broadband).
I haven’t bought a DVD for me for far over a year, so let’s see if my spend accelerates here as well. Hello the movie industry: paying customer waiting for you…