On a previous visit to Colorado, I mentioned that one way I spent my evenings was to watch anime on DVD. One of the first series that I collected, serial experiments: Lain, is regarded by many as one of the finest works of its kind: exquisitely animated, with a compelling (and deeply disturbing) story. Some…
Read More TexhnolyzeI’m visiting Louisville and Broomfield in Colorado this week as part of the ongoing Sun+StorageTek integration work, and so I took the first flight from Boston to Denver this morning. I had a couple of surprises. First, I was upgraded to first class for some reason (something to do with rectifying another travel agency screwup).…
Read More "The computers are down…."Oh dear. I actually caught myself gazing at this with interest: “For $1500, you can buy this pair of used first-class plane-seats to use as a sofa in your living room.”
Read More You know you're travelling more than is healthy…..From The Inquirer: US grants patent for anti-gravity device: “ACCUSATIONS that the US Patent office is giving out dotty patents were given some credence this week after the magazine Nature discovered that the watchdog had just granted one to a bloke who claimed to have invented an anti-gravity machine. Boris Volfson, of Huntington, is the…
Read More The lunatics are running the asylum….Here’s a detailed account of the incompetence of Sony/BMG and First 4 Internet, the cowboys who wrote the brain-dead rootkit masquerading as DRM (digital rights management). From Mark’s Sysinternals Blog, the bottom line: “Instead of admitting fault for installing a rootkit and installing it without proper disclosure, both Sony and First 4 Internet claim innocence.…
Read More Essential reading on the Sony/BMG Rootkit fiascoSo Parliament has handed Tony Blair the black eye that he deserves. From the BBC: “Tony Blair has suffered his first defeat after MPs rejected his plan to allow police to detain terror suspects without charge for up to 90 days. MPs rejected the plans by a bigger than expected margin of 322 votes to…
Read More Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for TonyOn the one hand, a row of unsold gas-guzzling behemoths, from One Giant Metaphor, reporting on a “Hummer dealer… in a panic…. year-to-year sales down about 50%,” On the other hand, a photograph that I took in Hyderabad a couple of weeks ago, of a family of five on a motor scooter: [N.b. I’ve grabbed…
Read More JuxtapositionOne of the things that made my trip to India and England so successful was seamless wireless connectivity. I thought I’d go into some detail about this, because it might be useful for future travellers. As I’ve described before, my phone is a Palm Treo 650 *, with service from Cingular. It’s a quad-band GSM…
Read More Wireless in India (and England)When I was in England last week, the most prominent DVD displayed in the shops wasn’t a blockbuster film, or a music video: it was the three DVD set covering this summer’s Ashes – the cricket series between England and Australia. However it bore the dreaded Region 2+4 logo, meaning that it wouldn’t play on…
Read More Ashes 2005 – the DVDI just got home from Boston’s Logan airport after my flight from London. This morning my mother and I went in to Oxford to buy a few small items that, curiously, it is almost impossible to find in the USA: Soluble paracetamol (acetaminophen) and aspirin. Quicker acting than tablets or caplets, and much more convenient…
Read More Day 18 – the end of the trip