Woke up this morning. Had no emails. I’m not that unpopular. My server just failed. If you tried to email me between midnight GMT and now then your message has disappeared into the ether. Sorry! Please resend it.
Read More03Feb05 — 1
Technology
30Jan05 — 2
There In Black And White
A couple of weeks ago The Today Programme broadcast an item about how a group of psychologists had discovered that people who prepared job applications by hand were more likely to lie in them than people who made applications through online forms. Today invited an “expert” onto the air to discuss this finding: a graphologist. […]
Read More27Jan05 — 1
Have A Break
It is fiddly. It is perverse. Most of all it is sublimely pointless. He doesn’t even like KitKats. Chris Applegate of qwghlm brings us one of the greatest expressions of the geek aesthetic since those guys put a Webserver in a fly. While I’m on the subject of geek culture and food, this from geek […]
Read More11Jan05 — 2
iStupid
Today the undeniably charismatic CEO of Apple Computer Inc., Steve Jobs, gave his keynote address to the Macworld Conference and Expo in San Francisco. As often he announced some new shiny things for people with roll-neck sweaters (and Backword Dave) to buy, including the iPod Shuffle—an iPod for runners. It has no moving parts, no […]
Read More07Jan05 — 4
A Word From Our Sponsors
I have been asked to bless this Webpage with the Google power of PooterGeek, the most “innovative and resourceful” Website in the World. The aforementioned link is surely the best to follow for Philippine biotechnology, enterprise, and investment conference information. I think casualsavant would agree with me in the comments, using further links to illustrate […]
Read More06Jan05 — 1
National Portrait Gallery Employee Escapes Shortlisting For PooterGeek’s 2005 Numptie Award
Dear Damian, Thanks for this. Believe it or not, we do have a sense of humour here and your email raised a smile or two in the office (actually – just one!). Please forgive the standard text of the email sent yesterday. We send out dozens of such emails each month as part of our […]
Read More05Jan05 — 9
For The Encouragement Of Learning
[UPDATE: Yes, this is a reply to a real email message I received today. It showed every sign of being from the National Portrait Gallery, scoring only 0.8 out of a possible 5.0 on X-Spam’s spam-o-meter. I haven’t emailed my message directly to the original sender yet. I may yet tone it down, but if […]
Read More29Dec04 — 2
iTunes Revisited
Following online discussion with the Anonymous Economist, who is a PC-based iPod addict, I should point out that the main problem I had with the Windows version of the iTunes software that accompanied my sister’s iPod Mini was her not being broadbanded up. It didn’t help that the program kept trying to dial out to […]
Read More28Dec04 — 3
Funny Walk
Suw Charman describes Asimo the Honda robot’s gait as “cute”. Asimo in motion looks to me a lot like a bloke in astronaut fancy dress, trying to sneak around shared accommodation in the small hours without waking up any of his co-habitants. [Requires Flash player]
Read More26Dec04 — 12
Good, Bad, And Mixed
I used to have reservations about Ute Lemper as a singer, but on Radio 3 this afternoon, performing with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, she was stunning. I’m sad that I missed the Hebrew and Arabic songs she began her show with. Apart from an abortive attempt to read Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone—I gave […]
Read More24Dec04 — 1
WikiWikiWoo!
I am a Wikipedian and link from PooterGeek to the wonderful Wikipedia frequently. This communal project has shown (yet again) the power of distributed collaborative work via the Net—just like the operating system running my PC and the Web server sending this page to you. Further, Wikipedia has proved conclusively that a philosopher can be […]
Read More21Dec04 — 8
Four-Wheel Driven
If the worst came to the worst, you would, of course, stamp on the head of that annoyingly talented and inquisitive Pakistani girl who helps her mother out in the local corner shop, but luckily you don’t have to resort to direct violence to keep the little oik out of those places at Oxbridge you […]
Read More16Dec04 — 0
Tally Ho!
Also from Slashdot I note that the planned advertisements for the superb open source Firefox Web browser have appeared. The ads depict the Firefox logo, a giant fox encircling the globe. This monster is the combined result of Tony Blair’s ban on hunting with dogs and his authorization of the release of GM organisms into […]
Read More11Dec04 — 0
Get With The Program
Ringing people from your mobile on public transport to tell them “I’m on the train” is so nineties. Now you email people and tell them “I’m on my mobile”. Thank you, Anthony. I’m on my Linux box. You’re back on the ‘Blogroll.
Read More11Dec04 — 0
The Rightful Winner Of The Turner Prize
As if to prove that not everything about post-modernism is bad, I have stumbled upon something that all but defines the term as applied to the arts. I sincerely hope that you have Java on your computer so that you too can experience Pac Mondrian. [For those of you who haven’t got Java installed you […]
Read More30Nov04 — 0
Say It With Flowers
Cool. [via Slashdot]
Read More30Nov04 — 2
Rise Up And Walk Again
If this is real it’s amazing. UPDATE: The site I linked to has free registration, but you could have a browse through these to see if you can find a simple click-through link.
Read More16Nov04 — 4
Running On Empty
PooterGeek has long had a jokey button labelled “nice arse” over on the right hand side of its front page. It links to a picture of me running in an annual Cambridge charity relay race called “Chariots of Fire” last year. One of the other members of our particular Genome Campus team was a guy […]
Read More27Oct04 — 2
Puddy Tats: Monsanto’s Stormtroopers
When the subject of British public attitudes to genetically modified organisms comes up at Genome Campus breaktime conversations I tend to make two standard contributions. I rail against the “Frankenfood” hysteria of the UK tabloid press (not to mention the bloody Archers) that has all but prevented a rational debate on the subject. I advance […]
Read More26Oct04 — 1
Too Little Too Late
“Sony launches music players with MP3 support” There’s a headline to put alongside “Microsoft acknowledge importance of Internet, release Explorer Web browser”; Sony have also been years too late, but they don’t have a monopoly they can use to crush the opposition anyway. Perhaps they can take advantage of the 80s revival instead and release […]
Read More16Oct04 — 0
Punching Through The Glass Ceiling
One of the co-workers of tech company cubicle drone Dilbert in Scott Adams’s inspired eponymous cartoon series is a fierce and talented engineer called Alice. She responds to the sexism and stupidity of her co-workers with extreme violence. She has triangular hair. Apropos of nothing, yesterday’s Economist magazine profiles Padmasree Warrior, chief technology officer with […]
Read More11Oct04 — 3
Stemmed Flow
Christopher Reeve is dead. The obituary on Radio 4 is already taking the “de mortuis nil nisi bonum” approach a bit too far by claiming that Reeve “avoided typecasting”. I, for one, remember his Henry V with profound admiration. Good lad, though, as Will Rubbish would say.
Read More27Sep04 — 0
Return Of The Genome
Saturday’s Telegraph magazine’s weekly Social Stereotype invented a media-friendly academic called “Damian”*, so it’s perhaps not the best time to tell you that I’ve been commissioned [dahling!] to do the cover story for an upcoming edition of geek glossy Linux User. It will be an update of this piece about the human genome project(s) that […]
Read More22Sep04 — 5
Just Tell Me “No”
I used to have a Sega Game Gear.I bought it from an affluent, young family who begged me to take it away from them before it destroyed their lives. They’d got it for their son, who turned out to be more interested in catching toads and sitting in cardboard boxes. Mummy and daddy then became […]
Read More22Sep04 — 0
Biting The Hand
This is a fun, skeptical report on the various genome projects. I didn’t catch it when it first appeared in Ha’aretz: ” The circumstances which led to a visit by the head of the U.S. National Human Genome Institute astonished scientists in Israel. Collins has received many invitations to participate in scientific conferences in Israel, […]
Read More21Sep04 — 0
Google Bible
I’ve reviewed this book about Google for the UK UNIX Users’ Group. I can’t link to the review because they don’t release the stuff from their magazine until months after it appears in print. In summary, it’s good enough that I would have paid for it if they hadn’t given me a free copy.
Read More20Sep04 — 0
A Drink In The Desert
Adam spotted this one.
Read More14Sep04 — 0
Everything’s Better In Widescreen
When I went a-hunting for that image of the BBC testcard this morning, I sort of suspected that the Web would be full of Aspies collecting TV transmission-testing arcana. Interested in the soundtrack? Try “The Girl—The Doll—The Music“. Want to see the card’s evolution? Check out the Carol Hersee photo album. Carol was the star […]
Read More10Sep04 — 4
Behind Bars
It’s amazing that critics of the application genetic fingerprinting have made so little rhetorical use of the year of the technique’s original discovery.
Read More29Aug04 — 0
The Day Draws Closer
Well, it’s a start.
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