Category: Misc
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Oh the irony
(Yes, I really am on the subscription lists of both these organisations).
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I’m A Lumberjack And I’m OK
You may well have seen the pictures of all the wood that’s piled up in places like Worthing beach from the wreck of the Ice Prince which sank a week ago off the Dorset coast. But the timber’s not limited to Worthing. Walking along the Brighton beach front earlier today, I was amazed at the…
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When Urban Myths Are Reported As News
I was disappointed recently, when watching the Ewan McGregor/Charlie Boorman series Long Way Down, that they reinforced the nonsense about water going down the plug clockwise or anti-clockwise depending on whether you’re in the northern or southern hemisphere. Along the border, there’s a few quid to be made perpetuating this party trick to unwitting tourists.…
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Combatting Terrorism/Drugs/Guns/Knives (Delete As Appropriate)
My local train station – the one I use to get to work every day – doesn’t have any barriers. As a result, there’s no real ticket check on the way in and out. To avoid ticket evasion, they have ticket inspectors on the trains, and spot checks. If you travel on the train at…
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For All Your Homeopathic Needs
Get your pills here!
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Screenplays
I moaned the other day about how Hollywood movie studios seemed more interested in awards than the piracy of their films – hence the existence of “Screener DVDs” which inevitably end up being made available on the internet. Anyway, one positive side effect of this scramble to win awards is that all the studios put…
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Quality
A recent entry on Boing Boing pointed to an article in Rolling Stone magazine which highlighted the fact that producers mix tracks so that they sound good when they’re ripped to an mp3 player, at the same time, removing the subtleties that a wider dynamic range allows. Boing Boing’s Cory Doctorow comments “…it seems to…
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John Woodruff
I read an obituary about this man the other day, and he’s someone I’d never heard of. He was a compatriot of Jesse Owens who ran in 1936 Olympics. Like Owens, he was also black: John Woodruff, who has died aged 92, was the first black to win gold in Berlin. His triumph in the…
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Happy Christmas
Happy Christmas everyone. I’ve not exactly sent a lot of Christmas cards this year, so please treat this as your Christmas greeting. Anyway, I’m off to watch the Doctor Who special, and all those Fred & Ginger films they’re showing on BBC Four.
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The Perils of Email
On his newsblog, Nick Robinson links to the emails and letters sent between the NAO and HMRC. As Robinson says: The key thing we learn comes not from the detail but the tone of all the exchanges. They demonstrate little concern from either the NAO or HMRC about data protection. The NAO wants, it would…
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Dirk Gently
Last Thursday I decided that I’d quite like to order a copy of the recent Radio 4 adaptation of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency. Produced by the same production team that made the recent Hitch Hikers’ follow-ups, I missed the Radio 4 airing, so thought I’d catch up on CD. I headed off to Amazon…
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Going Underground
I wish that there was some kind of London equivalent of UX. Somebody please tell me there is!
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CDs v Downloads
For most things, if you opt to download the material rather than get physical media, if there’s any difference in price, it’s cheaper to download. Think of iTunes v CDs, or software that you can download from many sellers. There’s no postage or packaging to account for, and minimal physical production costs. So it’s odd…