The mountain view aside, you’ll not have noticed much difference but I upgraded to Wordpress 2.5 yesterday. All went swimmingly this time thanks to using the SVN based upgrade procedure (although I’ve just noticed that my last.fm feed seems to have vanished for some reason). I also took the opportunity to install a nightly version of the K2 theme which should squash a few navigation bugs that you may have noticed in the past.
The aforementioned header image is from the letter ‘F’ installment of the ongoing Hogmanay alphabet tour: Flaine.
Update: I found some more photographs in iPhoto that I thought may make nice header images and a random selection from these is now in place.
When the University of California at Irvine built their campus, they just planted grass. Then they waited a year and paved over where people had made paths in the grass. I first heard this in an interview with Larry Wall about 10 years ago but it may well be apocryphal.
I’m seeing parallels with what could be going on with Apple’s iPhone development plans. Release a basic device and wait for the crowds to clamour for what they feel is missing from the device. Pay attention to those that shout the loudest (case in point: the recent enterprise features) but make sure that you set some of the most popular requests to one side for introduction in the release of your second generation model.
Compare and contrast to the usual practice of bundling a metric ass-load of rarely-used crapware that serves mainly to clog up the menus on other phones. Video editing and ringtone composition on a mobile phone have been nothing more than gimmicks.
I pointed out in a previous post that, between myself and a few friends, we had plans to travel East, South and West and I wondered if I knew anyone who was heading North in order to cover all points of the compass.
I don’t know him but nevertheless, I think that he deserves a mention. Ben Saunders is attempting to set a new record for a solo expedition to the North Pole. On foot. Unsupported. He’ll be pulling all of his supplies (all 60kg of it) on a sledge and consuming just shy of 6,000 calories a day.
That last bit doesn’t sound too bad.
Was it not for Kottke, I would have missed this paper on restaurant sobriquets and subsequently an earlier piece on the Guardian food blog. There are some absolutely hilarious examples in the comments but here are some of my personal favourites:
- A Pizza the Action
- Wok Right Inn
- Thai Me Up
- The Frying Scotsman
- The Codfather
- Jason’s Donner Van
- Cheeses of Nazareth
I’ve not eaten in all of them so I can’t make any comment on the quality of the fare. I’m not sure I could ever order anything from the last in the list for laughing out loud whenever I even just think about it.
During preparation for my impending travels a few snippets caught my eye.
Airports are obviously a huge exercise in logistics. Getting through security can sometimes be time consuming but terahertz radiation scanners1 are one way of speeding things up. Obviously some people will be concerned at the thought of such intimate searches. At Heathrow’s shiny new terminal, if you’re not at the security gates 35 minutes before your flight is due to leave then you’re shit outta luck and will need to book yourself on to a new flight. It all may seem obvious but Wired have produced a guide to (not my pun) flying through security.
There is the argument that we’re all being encouraged to get through security checks early so we have to spend more time in the shops on the other side. Likewise with the fluid restrictions and not being able to bring your own drinks through – we are forced to buy them instead. People may argue that this is an obvious preventative measure to take but if it was such an immediate threat, why did Australia announce that they would be implementing similar plans three months ahead of actually doing so? I’m not the only one to have issues with these “security measures” Tim Bray has problems with his toothpaste. I’m kind of glad that I don’t have a MacBook Air to confuse matters even more.
Heathrow is home to the UK’s largest WLAN and is also forging ahead with technology in order to try and improve performance in all areas. Having trialled RFID baggage tagging last September a larger six-month trial is now underway. Speaking as a victim of luggage loss myself, this is welcome news.
Something that I’d never thought of before is the whole boarding process. This can make a huge difference in turnaround times. An older boarding process blew the trumpet of free-for-all unordered boarding that is popular for the budget airlines but now an astrophysicist has had another idea on how to improve things even further. If vast inroads are made in this area then the need for new airport terminals can be reduced.
1 If you can remember the giant x-ray security scanner in Total Recall then you’re not too far from having seen this in practice already.
At least it does for web pages.
“Try holding your breath for as long as it takes your home page to load. If you are now dead, it took too long.”
- Art and the Zen of web sites
A decade ago, in the age of dial-up connections, page weight was everything. Images were compressed to within an inch of their lives and Netscape (R.I.P.) even had a special attribute for a lower resolution image to use as a placeholder while the proper image loaded. Then along came broadband and web developers got lazy. Continue reading ‘Size matters’
So Marion Cotillard has been getting flak for not swallowing what the establishment is shoveling and yet Tom Cruise can believe in Xenu without similar adverse reaction?
I don’t know what led Cotillard to make the comments she did but I recently watched the Loose Change 9/11 documentary and I certainly have more unanswered questions now than I did before.
What happens when a conspiracy theory is no longer just a theory?
I opened a new current account ahead of my travels next month having seen the Nationwide “proud to be different” advertisements on the television. They are the only high street bank that doesn’t charge for using your card for purchases or withdrawals abroad. I think that the Post Office also provide an account with this feature but they’re not in my good books at the moment.
What worried me when opening this new account was not having to produce any identification: no passport, drivers license, utility bill or anything at all that would prove my address or even my name. Being found on the electoral roll was good enough apparently. Services like www.192.com sell this information and more although getting my mail would seemingly do just as well. This is where my gripe with the Royal Mail and the Post Office comes into play.
The postal service in Edinburgh is woeful. Despite having my name on the door I am guaranteed to receive mail for someone I’ve never heard of several times a week. Less often I get mail for the wrong flat number or house number and every now and again I get mail for the wrong street and postcode entirely. Friends of mine have the mail for their whole stairwell left piled all together on the bottom step. Considering that our mail isn’t delivered until after 11am these days I think that it’s surprising that we get any mail at all as everyone in our tenement is out at work and there is nobody at home to let the postman into the stair.
Banks do try and make sending you things like new cards more secure by not sending you the card and PIN in the same envelope or on the same day. The Royal Mail are the weak link in the security chain and sending things like pre-approved credit cards in the post are obviously prime opportunities for the criminal fraternity.
I would say that web development for a design agency isn’t akin to other kinds of development. The wide vs. deep theory is still applicable but the edges do begin to blur a little. Nigh-on eight years of mentally loading and unloading different projects while switching operating systems, changing programming languages and hot swapping database architectures have ground me down. The person that knows me best (my mum) thinks that I’ve probably got a touch of the “Reggie Perrins” and her diagnosis is probably not far wrong. She is a nurse after all.
Continue reading ‘Hiatus’
Of course, reducing our energy consumption isn’t enough if we want to minimise our impact on planet Earth. A major overhaul of our consumerist attitude is also needed. My great aunt recently had to get a new washing machine, the old one having lasted (along with the fridge and oven) since 1972 and she “only had to have ‘the man’ out once to fix it” in all that time.
Will anything we use now be functional in 30 years time? In this disposable age and era of inbuilt redundancy things that last even half that are a rarity.
Thanks to Amber for bringing clip this to my attention.