Synesthesia

Notes on stuff

World - Category Archive

For once, a tale of good customer service

Like Gary Turner, I recently suffered a garage-burglary in which the scumbags helped themselves to a couple of bikes. Luckily though my insurance company works with Wheelies Direct to handle cycle-replacement claims. The staff at Wheelies have been friendly and helpful all the way from validating the details of the bikes I lost (they know their [...]

London Atrocities

There’s been an outpouring of blog entries about this week’s events but strangely I’ve felt no desire to write myself until now. I was lucky - running late for work I was still waiting at my suburban tube station when the network was shut down. That meant I spent the day at home, watching things slowly [...]

The Country In Your Heart

I’m an occasional reader of Whiskey Bar (I don’t often have the time his posts deserve) but this seemed especially thought-provoking for the way it captures the feeling that the country in your heart is no longer the one you live in: [...] It’s a strange place to end up: a man without a country, grudgingly [...]

Yet another post about Google Earth

Lots of people have raved about Google Earth (Gary for one), but for me one of the coolest features has to be the ability to overlay your own graphics which then become locked in place and move with the earth model...

Brugge

I’ve just had the opportunity to spend a few days in Brugge (the view of the Bell Tower was from my hotel window). Although the centre of town was thronged with tourists it was only a few minutes’ walk to quieter districts where the architecture is just as impressive. Tourism is clearly the main industry [...]

Spring has Sprung

Lots of signs of Spring this weekend: Buds on the Birch trees in the local woods An invasion of frogs to the small pond in my garden The first wafts of barbecue smoke Technorati Tags World

Five and a half weeks

That’s how long since I posted here. Some of that has been down to winter solstice ennui. Some of it down to spending time with loved ones over the Christmas and New Year period. Some of it because of work stuff (which I don’t write about here) Some of it because of some painful transitions in a close [...]

A life where Tivo has always existed

A life where TiVo has always existed is a great example of how subsequent generations take for granted technology that was new and strange not long ago. [via The Shifted Librarian]

Suburban Jungle

I was waiting for email to download this morning when I witnessed two cats and three squirrels playing “cat and tree-rat”. Watching the activity that spread across the gardens of four or five houses I began to see that although the cats were very good at “seizing” the symbolic and literal high ground such as [...]

Johnny Depp World

Another modern parenting milestone - my daughter has her first blog...

Jack Elve 1917-2000

Today would have been my father's 87th birthday.

TheyWorkForYou

Public beta of a new site that let's you find out your MP's voting record, what he/she has said in various debates etc.

Shirky: Nomic World

"Shirky: Nomic World: By the players, for the players":http://shirky.com/writings/nomic.html - drawing parallels between Nomic online games (where the rules can change) and real life societies [via "Adina Levin":http://alevin.com/weblog/archives/001406.html#001406]

Vegas

A couple of observations from my visit to "Sin City"

Hutton Aftermath

I don't normally write about work here, but I wanted to note that I was one of the 10,000 people who contributed to this - I'm one of the 6,000 whose name didn't appear due to lack of space.

Oh no, my children have discovered this site

The day had to come of course, when the huge interconnectedness of the web comes back to a place that is a hundred miles away in the physical world, but right inside me as far as my emotions are concerned... That's right, my children have discovered this site!

Apparently I’m a Canadian

According to a survey put together by Michael Adams, author of "Fire & Ice: The US, Canada and the Myth of Converging Values" [via Dave Pollard], my values are very similar to those of many Canadians and a long way from typical American values. Although I recognise the results as being related to what I believe, I'm surprised at such an extreme ranking and wonder what the result would be if the survey was calibrated for UK and Europe.

Flow, or not

It’s raining so it must be time to start blogging again… I’ve been wondering (yet again) about the importance of going with what feels right, the natural flow, and acknowledging your own energy level (or lack of it…) In the last two weeks I’ve: * thoroughly enjoyed a long weekend in Paris (photos to follow when [...]

Sun, or lack of it

As I’ve noted before, my blogging seems to be in inverse proportion to sunlight - the last few weeks have been a fabulous spring here in South East England so I’ve found myself losing interest in scouring the network for things to comment on. That, plus catching up with friends, playing on a new bike, [...]

Books and trains

Been having something of “blogger’s block” for a few days - I blame the time and energy that is being consumed by this. On the bright side it has meant that I can catch up on my current reading… Technorati Tags World

Meta States around Eldred

Over at the American Open Technology Consortium Doc Searls is going deep about the metaphorical aspects of the Eldred case: Watch the language. While the one side talks about licenses with verbs like copy,distribute, play, share and perform, the other side talks about rights with verbs like own, protect, safeguard, protect, secure, authorize, buy, sell, infringe, [...]

Living “on purpose”

I met two very special people earlier this week. Beverley De-Gale and Orin Lewis are the founders of the African Caribbean Leukaemia Trust. Driven originally by the necessity of looking after their family, they have gone on to help many, many others. Not pushy, not showy, but very much people who radiate an air [...]

Doctors on the cheap

News story on how one man is producing doctors for the UK NHS at 2% of the normal cost

Internet and Democracy

Democracy is in crisis. New technology gives the means for the authentic voice of the people to be heard, but it will still require changes to institutions.

UK ISPs stand up to Home Office plans

The Guardian reports that the Internet Service Providers Association has written to David Blunkett: “[...] refusing to sign up to plans to give law enforcement agencies access to the records of British web and email users [...] the Guardian has learned that internet service providers have told the Home Office that they will not voluntarily stockpile [...]

Water - it’s not rocket science!

Too thirsty for knowledge - Can you imagine spending every day at work with a hangover? That is the nearest adults will come to the feelings of dehydration experienced by children who have little access to water during the school day. So says a campaigner who argues that learning is being damaged by a simple [...]

Flashbacks

Spent this weekend in the town where I grew up. Catching up with my mother & sister, also spending some time with my kids, who were there wth my ex-wife. I took the kids to the local playground - where I too played at their age. Although some things have changed there is much as [...]

Another take on RageBoy’s visit to London

I looked into those big, sad, soulful, hurting eyes and I wanted to give him a hug. People who say the internet is a geeky, meaningless side show to life have no idea. This stuff matters. Over at The Obvious? Technorati Tags World

Is it madness or brilliance or both?

I referred to Gary Turner’s momentary lapses of dilution® a day or two ago in the piece on rageboy’s visit to London… but I’ve only just been introduced to his alter ego Mike Golby at Pagecount. I don’t know what he’s on but it’s very good…. Technorati Tags World

Some UK blogs

Thought it was time to trawl through some of my compatriots … here are some that caught my eye on the way … LinkMachineGo, Wherever You Are, Pete Ashton Dot Com, not.so.soft, Interconnected, feeling listless. And last but not least for its very British (in)sanity A letter from the Olde Countrie by “Group Captain Lionel Mandrake” (aka [...]

Fear and love on the internet?

LINKMACHINEGO.COM picks up Texting via wood s lot thus “I read about Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld and Ashcroft’s approval ratings and I wonder about my fellow citizens. I wonder if there isn’t some collective human core drive toward conservatism. I mean conservatism on its most basic level: fear of change. These familiar white men — [...]

Even more new ways of selling books

The Shifted Librarian picks up on Weblog Bookwatch and the way Amazon are finding new ways to make the Web work for them and their customers. The blog at onfocus.com is also worth a look - some interesting stuff going on there with scripts (Paul Bausch is one of the original co-developers of Blogger) Technorati Tags World

Who to trust when we all bowl alone?

Jon Udell picks up on Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone“ “If he’s right, the flowering of online community that we see all around us may be part of a very large historical pattern. As a culture, we may be sensing a deficiency of social capital, and creating new institutions — appropriate to our time and our technology [...]

Inventing the Future

Thought provoking piece by Tom O’Reilly on the way forward with web services (via EVHEAD). Technorati Tags World

Fathers

Top Ten Reasons To Witness Your Dad’s Demise (via Doc Searls) was written by Halley Suitt 48 hours before her father died - as she says “here’s my attempt to see the good in these bad times”. Reading it reminded me of my own father - he died in Jan 2000 - and just for [...]

The designer deaf baby thing

Lots of sources report on the story of Sharon Duchesneau and Candace McCullough, the lesbian couple who selected to have a deaf child. (e.g. Guardian,Washington Post). Commentary varies. There is the expected mainstream and “family values” (e.g. Family Research Council) condemnation. I thought I might find some references in support of the couple’s action, but [...]

Thomas Kelly “Father of The Lunar Module”

The engineer who led the team to design the Lunar Module. Born June 14 1929; died March 23 2002. Obituary Technorati Tags World

Pay As You Learn

It’s the unspoken rule of state education: if you want your kids to do well, you’ve got to pay for private tutors. Which is fine for the well-off middle class, but what about those who can’t afford to? Jenni Russell writes in today’s Guardian about the hidden system of private tuition that is underpinning the apparent [...]

More fun at work…

In “Fourteen Forms of Fun” Pierre-Alexandre Garneau lists the broad categories of entertaining activities, in the context of better computer games design. Co-Working News suggest that these are also fundamental to the design of an effctive co-working experience too. They are: Beauty Immersion Intellectual Problem Solving Competition Social Interaction Comedy Thrill of Danger Physical Activity Love Creation Power Discovery Advancement and Completion Application of an Ability Something to think [...]

Father’s Day?

Excellent article in the Observer about the problems divorced and seperated fathers have in getting time with their children, and the way the UK courts seem institutionally biased against fathers. Technorati Tags World

In defence of freedom?

In The New McCarthyism George Monbiot says: The charge of “anti-Americanism” is itself profoundly anti-American. If the United States does not stand for freedom of thought and speech, for diversity and dissent, then we have been deceived as to the nature of the national project. Were the founding fathers to congregate today to discuss the principles [...]

Fun and science combined

HowGoodInBed.com: is a web front end to a neural network. Every piece of data you add trains the network a little bit more. So what does it do? It tries to correlate externally observable factors (such as age, height, build, hair, skin colouring, social behaviour, chattiness, happiness, physical activity level and intelligence) with sexual attributes (such [...]

All we needed was…

“Men Are Back” says Peggy Noonan. If she is right might this be the hidden benefit in all that is happening right now? Many writers have attributed a lot of the current ills in society to a world in which men, especially young under-educated men, have low self-esteem constantly reinforced by the messages they [...]

RAWA

The Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) describe themselves as “a political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women’s rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan.”. Certainly they have some shocking photos of the reality of life in the land ruled by the Taliban. Technorati Tags World

Flirting is Good for Productivity!

Oliver James writes in the Guardian to argue the case for adults to be playful. He reports on a study by the Gestalt Institute in Italy that studied flirtation and sex among 1,000 employees, and which concludes that office flirtation is good for relieving workplace anxiety and stress and improves relationships with your partner. [...]

Food for thought…

George Monbiot is nudging our consciences again. In his article “Genocide or Peace” he notes “the Afghan winter, like the Russian one, is absolute. Aid workers with long experience of Afghanistan report that after the first week of November, there is nothing you can do” and… One person requires 18kg of food per month to survive. If [...]

The Onion

Today I keep finding links that take me to this satirical site. Star piece for today (and surprisingly moving too) is “God Angrily Clarifies ‘Don’t Kill’ Rule”. Read it. Technorati Tags World

And now for something completely different

Tom Cunliffe at Time for tea pointed me to Annie Mole’s site called London Underground. No, not a trainspotter’s site, but a complete “microculture” - stuff that those of us who use the Tube every day take completely for granted. Or maybe it’s irony? Technorati Tags World

Footprints in cyberspace

Doc Searls refers to a list of former WTC tenants, and their corporate websites that in some cases seem untouched by events of the 11th, frozen where they were left in cyberspace. Hmmm. Technorati Tags World

“Collateral Repair”

…is the title of a thought provoking article by George Monbiot (who characterises himself as an “objector”) For him objecting to war is not about appeasing terrorists, nor does he view the events of 11th September as anything other than “a crime against humanity”, but he does argue strongly that if we forgo justice then [...]

Different Views?

John Pilger wrote in the Guardian last week In these surreal days, there is one truth. Nothing justified the killing of innocent people in America last week and nothing justifies the killing of innocent people anywhere else. …and further urged us in the UK to “behave responsibly” and turn away from the imperialistic response to focus instead [...]

Awakeners

Awakeners I still don’t know what to think about current world events. I’ve been trawling the web searching for contrasting opinions that might help narrow down my thoughts. For example Dave Winer writes about his own attitudes to the America he lives in and how they are changing, and contrasts this with the pulse of anti-Americanism he feels in Europe. [...]

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