Having read an article I wrote reviewing bioinformatics courses in the UK, and despite my honest warnings, Wei applied to be a student on one I once taught on. Because the admissions office at [insert name of educational institution easily obtained by googling] failed to process her paperwork properly she had to make do with […]
Read MoreThe technology Karma Police came to visit me this afternoon while I was at the developing lab as I attempted to explain to one of the Young People, the holder of a degree in photography attained with the exclusive use of a manual medium format camera, how to operate a 35mm film SLR. I hope […]
Read More[via The (normally very geeky) Daily WTF]
Read MoreFurther to my recent post about executive salaries, here’s an article from Tuesday about how the tech firms that pay their CEOs the most give the lowest returns to investors. [via Slashdot]
Read MoreIn an ad in Sound On Sound, Pete Townshend is quoted as saying: “I’m a huge fan of Ivory. It amazes me every time I use it.” Ivory is, according to the reviews I’ve read, superb software for obtaining grand piano sounds that are indistinguishable from the real thing (they are the real thing), but […]
Read MoreToday, 13Apr06, we—bloggers, academics, campaigners, writers, scientists, journalists, citizens—launch the Euston Manifesto. With this document we hope to publicly assert our progressive, democratic, egalitarian, internationalist principles in the face of recent attacks upon them from the Right and, to our dismay, the Left. Many of us are of the Left, but we come from across […]
Read MoreCher can sing, but it’s commonly thought that the warbly electronic effect applied to her voice on her multi-platinum hit Believe was achieved with an infamous piece of pitch-correction software called Auto-Tune. Recording nerds debate whether it was that program or a less interesting vocoder-type gadget (Digitech Talker) that really did the business, but Auto-Tune […]
Read MoreThe genetic revolution brings you a “healthier” fry-up: Geneticists have mixed DNA from the roundworm C. elegans and pigs to produce swine with significant amounts of omega-3 fatty acids — the kind believed to stave off heart disease [hmmm…]. Researchers hope they can improve the technique in pork and do the same in chickens and […]
Read MoreOh, the inevitability! Five hours ago they released a security upgrade for WordPress 2.01, taking it to version 2.02. Hang on to your mouses. Here I go again.
Read MoreUPDATE 2: Would you believe I’m trying to fix all this while builders are fixing a broken pipe that’s flooded my flat? UPDATE: PooterGeek now looks strange to all of you. I hope normal service will be resumed soon. It has come to my attention that PooterGeek suddenly looks strange to those of you reading […]
Read MoreIf any of you have been forced to look at the old, purple, Movable Type version of PooterGeek lately it’s because my hosts, who claimed they would have finished their upgrades by Friday, decided to move all my data to a new server this weekend. The first I knew about it was a note in […]
Read MoreEvery time I see a photograph of Abu Hamza that includes his torso, it looks like he’s got an iPod Mini hanging round his neck. What is it?
Read MoreHurry! They’ve knocked £100 off the art deco gramophone!
Read Moredoctorvee’s ‘Blog is looking rather slick these days. He also has a link to “thinking chess” [you need to have Java installed, but it’s worth it] which is even slicker, so slick that it’s got me thinking about doing something I swore off years ago: learning another programming language. Also via doctorvee, this pleasing tally […]
Read MoreI overheard two of the staff in Maplin today complaining that they had had to change the price on some piece of consumer electronics twice in one day. We live in the noughties now so both changes were decreases. A Chinese factory employee probably figured out some way to make ten of of whatever gadget […]
Read MoreYesterday evening, two random girls from Lodz phoned me up up to teach me Polish. [Hello, Alice and Monika.] Yes, about three years after everyone else, I now have Skype. But the Linux client doesn’t work properly for me (surprise surprise) so you’ll have to catch me on one of those rare occasions when I’m […]
Read MoreSome misquotes are more serious than others. [thanks to Claire]
Read MoreJackie is of course right to be disgusted with Alastair Campbell admitting that both he and the Prime Minister are clueless about computers. She is wrong to make any connection between this and their being employees of the state. Many senior managers in large UK organisations, both public and private sector, are incompetent because once […]
Read MoreNikon is going to stop making most of its film cameras. Time to have a look at some lousy digital photography. In other news, I’ve just bought another Minolta film camera body.
Read MoreIf you are interested in biotechnology enterprise and investment in the Philippines then you need to be at this conference. [Is that okay, cs?]
Read MoreElectronic paper is here at last: I want this and I want that.
Read MoreI found out just before Christmas that I’ve been turned down for that SciArt grant I was applying for. This is not exactly a surprise, but I’m still not happy about it. Thankfully, my family took my hint when I told them and I didn’t have to endure a Christmas of them looking at me […]
Read MoreLast year or the year before, following a request on PooterGeek for you lot to suggest somewhere I might buy a bridge computer for my dad for Christmas, I ordered one for him from DreamDirect. DreamDirect is an evil chimera of The Gadget Shop and SAGA magazine: apart from selling fine handheld bridge computers, their […]
Read MoreVia Slashdot comes news of a striking new development in digital camera technology. Even more people will be coming up to me after they have heard the electro-mechanical winding of my 35mm film camera and asking, “Ooh, can I have a look at the preview?”
Read More…but, having read three different people write recently that British ‘Bloggers are united in their opposition to ID cards, I’d just say that I think they will be rather handy actually. I’d like my medical data stored on mine too, if that’s okay with everyone. Not only can I see no sound principled case against […]
Read MoreOne of my correspondents—quite possibly someone in Canada—has a dose of I-Worm/Mytob.HL. Please could you do something about it because I’m getting bored of the infected spam your machine is sending me. Thank you.
Read MoreLook at Europe’s light pollution. As a poster on The Motley Fool points out, the London-to-Preston stretch of Britain appears to have a higher density of electrified living than anywhere in the continent but the Ruhr/Benelux region. Try to be witty about that one, PooterGeekers.
Read MoreHow can I resist a ‘Blog post that knocks indie rockers and iPods at the same time? Thinking of buying an iPod Nano? If you really love music, there’s a better way to spend your money. Shame about the colour.
Read MoreMark A Rayner at the skwib has found William Wallace’s long lost USB stick of PowerPoint presentations. Here are those crucial Battle of Sterling Bridge bullet points: We smell like crap We can’t read We’re covered in woad Time to kick some ass!
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