I’m a big Apple fan. I have an iPod and my last two laptops have been Apples. They’ve all served me very well and I like being part of the “mac fraternity’. But there are two things that worry me: firstly their growing insistence on DRM on music and video and secondly the environmental impact of their technology. They did pretty badly in a comparison [...]
The Good Society
Compass is a name that is cropping up more and more in the newspapers and on TV news. It’s a pressure group set up by Neal Lawson to try and influence the Labour party’s policy direction after Tony Blair leaves the helm. I’ve been involved a little bit and was a member of their Good Society working group, which has published its report as a [...]
Gibsonesque
There’s no escaping the similarities between the lonelygirl15 saga and the plot of William Gibson’s novel Pattern Recognition. From the Washington Post: “The plot [of Pattern Recognition] centers on mysterious bits of video posted anonymously on the Internet. The shadowy black-and-white videos, called “the footage,” appear to feature a pair of lovers and hint deliciously at a larger, magnetically compelling story. The footage inspires a [...]
Wikipedia v Britannica (again)
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting debate between Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia and Dale Hoiberg of Britannica. I’m beginning to think that it’s gone beyond the point of Wikipedia using their difference from Britannica as a way of raising the profile of the project and that now Britannica must think they will sell more by keeping the debate alive. [via the excellent if:book]
Open House Weekend
It’s Open House London this weekend and BedZED is part of the show. Must tidy up the garden before then and remember not to wander round in my underpants.
Would you trust Team 32?
The Department is the finest thing on radio for quite some time. Every show in this series has been brilliant but this week’s installment about what to do with science and technology was a particular gem. “You can be pretty sure that a few seconds before the world ends, a scientist somewhere will have uttered the word ‘oops’.” is one lovely line. You can tell [...]