The Incredible Shrinking Drive

Three hard-drives, 2002 to 2012

Even after three decades of using computers, this kind of thing continues to amaze me.

Read More · 27 July 2012 · Infotech

Zombieland

Why Crunch Mode Doesn’t Work was written with the games industry in mind, but sounds a lot like how things get at certain times of the academic year, especially around the end of semester. The work-related aspects weren’t the most disturbing part of it for me, though. The scariest part for a parent of pre-schoolers was this:

In both the short- and long-term, reducing sleep hours as little as one hour nightly can result in a severe decrease in cognitive ability, sometimes without workers perceiving the decrease.

Read More · 24 July 2012 · Journal

The Proceedings of the Ever so Strange.

Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld get coffee.

“No, Thursday’s out...”

Phlegm in Peckham.

Boris Johnson’s Olympic Welcome from Cassetteboy—see it quick before LOCOG send the lawyers round.

24 July 2012 · Weblog

Nikola Tesla’s letterhead was a thing of beauty.

England as seen by Americans.

A Conversation With My 12-Year-Old Self deserves the buzz it’s been getting.

One young man’s tribute to Trololo.

The IRL Fetish.

I doubt I’ll ever read Finnegans Wake, but Michael Chabon’s account of doing so is a great read.

Tantalising glimpses of Sibelius’s 8th Symphony, which maybe, just maybe, could emerge one day. Forget shoring up Nokia, all Finland’s efforts should be focused on this.

Jimmy Wales on when to use Wikipedia as a source.

Running a desktop computer apparently costs twenty times as much as charging an iPad. But of course there are things iPads can’t run, such as Flash. Fortunately, you can do anything on your iPad at HTML5 ZOMBO.COM.

Depressing news: an invasive plant is killing wombats. First koalas, then Tassie devils, and now this. Before long Australia will be down to Eastern greys and tiger snakes.

15 July 2012 · Weblog

Right Ho, Eaves

I’ve finally finished clearing out the eaves. Only took about twenty hours. The ones on the lounge side were less a case of clearing out, more a case of pulling up dozens and dozens of two-inch nails from the crawl-boards covering every inch of the space using a crowbar and claw-hammer. There weren’t nearly as many bucketloads of dust and stone to carry downstairs, but there were a few finds along the way.

Read More · 10 July 2012 · Journal

Fantastic Bombastic

This will surprise nobody who’s ever heard me go on about them, but I can’t stop watching the new Muse video. It’s so perfectly edited, it adds enormously to an already excellent song.

I was trying to think what the expression on Kelly Holmes’s face in the last few seconds reminded me of. But of course: it was another video that made me very happy indeed.

Another subliminal parallel: Bellamy singing “race, it’s a race” at 2:23 brought to mind 0:24 of this. Snake, it’s a snake...

5 July 2012 · Music

The Large HREF Collider

With so much focus today on the discovery of the Higgs boson, the European Parliament’s rejection of ACTA has apparently escaped the detection of the mainstream press.

My mother declared my bedroom a disaster area.

Star Wars: The Fan Cut.

Star trails over Victoria by Lincoln Harrison.

800,000 years of atmospheric CO2.

Your E-Book is Reading You.

More money makes us act less human.

Any more questions from you and our friendship is at an end.

The first 2012-Olympics-related thing that’s actually made me want to pay attention. But only because it’s Muse. Muuuuuuuussse!

4 July 2012 · Weblog

June 2012