It’s the end of September and here’s a six year-old boy, an Argos Catalogue and a letter that starts ‘Hello Santa’ (Santa is helpfully provided with page numbers)…
Month: September 2004
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Classical music’s mess
Twenty years ago, when I started listening to classical music, things looked pretty good for the form. A small revival was under way – lots of gorgeous new music, influential movie soundtracks and superstar ensembles seemed to promise some kind of renaissance. The subsidised concert halls were full and radio deregulation promised a wave of… Continue reading Classical music’s mess
And in other news…
Google has Bush to win. Fascinating (and very simple) statistical analysis – shows that you can use a very large body of continuously updated information from extremely diverse sources (like Google’s index of the web) to model… practically anything, including elections. Techies at Earthlink have built a nifty test application using SIP, which is a… Continue reading And in other news…
Geek? Moi?
Is it geeky of me to find this history of ISO paper sizes absolutely gripping? I suppose it is… Here’s an entertaining Slashdot thread on the same topic. Why are geeks so pro-standards? I guess there must be some primitive comfort in their predictability. Dare I say it: standards are a borderline-autistic response to a… Continue reading Geek? Moi?
Ambiguity in product packaging (part 1)
But where shall I go?
One thing at a time
Seth Godin links to Woot, a clever ecommerce site whose USP is the kind of gonzo experiment you can only really do online – one product per day. That’s it. Come midnight it’s history and they’re on to the next one (or earlier if they run out). Neat, but I guess it might become a… Continue reading One thing at a time
The great glass elevator
As usual, the space scientists leave me open-mouthed with wonder. Latest preposterous challenge: getting stuff into space is expensive – rockets and space-suits and beef stroganoff in a tube and all that – so why not forget the big bang and winch your satellite up a long cable ‘anchored’ 100,000 km up there in an… Continue reading The great glass elevator
A Burma veteran at Foyles
John Giddings was at Foyles the other day for an evening of poetry and literature from the war in Burma. I took his photograph in the coffee bar – you can’t sit and ignore a man with a row of medals like that! The one on the left is an MBE, by the way. Mr… Continue reading A Burma veteran at Foyles
Anti-corporate sneakers
Business baiting is back in fashion. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a firm believer in hassling corporations mercilessly until they meet their obligations – to societies, communities and economies – but I’d like to see some balance and maybe a less dogmatic appreciation of the benefits of the corporate model too. Sure, if you eat… Continue reading Anti-corporate sneakers