Once I arrived at Kings Cross yesterday afternoon I took the Tube to London Bridge and had a touristy walk back along the Thames and on to the Regent Street Apple Store to pick up a new power adapter. Maybe I left my old one behind on purpose to give me an excuse to go and wander around and look at Shiny Apple goodness.
I used to hate London with a passion - kind of how Homer Simpson feels about New York. Maybe I’m mellowing in my old age or I just felt comfortable knowing where I was thanks to the iPhone’s Locate Me feature and Google Maps. Either way, I actually had quite a pleasant day.
Considering where I was today I had a bitch of a time getting any WiFi access. I was at Earls Court at Internet World 2008 which is expecting 18,000 visitors over three days. I certainly wasn’t expecting to be greeted by a host of attractive girls in rubber nurses outfits but I’m not complaining
I started off with the keynote presentation of the Future of the Social Web with Travis Katz which was basically a 30 minute MySpace spiel. There were a few seminars on content management systems which I took in over the afternoon that proved to be more interesting and I finished off the day at the Dangers of the Proprietary Web with the co-founder of Mozilla Europe, Tristan Nitot.
I wandered in between the 300 exhibitors in the gaps in the seminars where a metric ass-load of freebies were up for grabs but I controlled myself as I don’t really need to cart more crap around the World than is absolutely necessary.
I’ve just boarded the train that will take me on the first leg of my journey and have realised that I neglected to include my laptop power brick when finishing off my packing this morning.
I stopped off at Waterstones to pick up some books to read while I’m away and then passed the O2 Memory Project to record the start of my trip. I strolled through the East end of Princes Street Gardens, past the Scott Monument, pausing to take a look back at the National Galleries, Edinburgh Castle and the beautiful architecture of The Scotsman and Balmoral Hotels, the Edinburgh HQ of Halifax Bank of Scotland and made my way down to Waverley station.
Well that’s it. I depart tomorrow morning on my three month trip around the World and I just “worked” my last day. Actually, it was more like a half-day as I spent this morning with assorted other geeks at the Guardian tech podcast’s coffee morning in Home House. Thanks in part to the French rapping and American accent I didn’t realise that Yann Seznec was Edinburgh-based but he was in attendance and I got talking to him about his brilliant Wii Loop Machine that I saw online by chance the other day.
God forbid I actually ever leave Edinburgh for good as the leaving parties (yes, plural) for what is essentially just an extended holiday just about broke me. No longer is youthful vigour on my side: back-to-back nights out last weekend left me a little emotional, being over-tired and over-served as I was. A big thank you to my friends for giving me such a great send-off and my employers for letting me go.
I’m all Web 2.0′d up so as well as reading this here blog you’ll be able to keep up with:
Or see everything aggregated at friendfeed.com/nev/
I’ve decided that I’m too old for a rucksack, not old enough for a suitcase, I don’t have a steamer trunk so my large wheeled holdall is the bag for the job. I guess I’d better get packing!
The notebook of choice in the geek community is undoubtedly the Moleskine – favoured by Hemingway, Matisse and Van Gogh. Instead of fishing around in your bag for a pen when inspiration hits you, somehow tethering your pen to your notebook keeps it ready for use anytime. You can either shell out for a BookSling or buy a flat pen. However, I’ve come up with a free alternative that is compatible with most pens:
Recently there was some amount of ill feeling directed toward Apple after they started installing their Safari Internet browser with their iTunes software update. (I also just noticed that “up to date” is no longer hyphenated in OS X 10.5 Leopard Software Update but that’s a discussion for another day.)
While this in itself is bad enough behaviour for any software company, it is not the main annoyance I have with their practices. I like to keep things organised how I like them. Like my “Start Menu” for instance.
Every single frickin’ time that I update iTunes (and Quicktime) Apple deems it acceptable for them to place a couple of shortcuts in my Start Menu, Quick Launch area and on my Desktop which I then have to delete.
US Patent law is frankly in somewhat of a mess. Any system that allows a man to hold a patent on a method for playing on a swing needs or awarded on a staple element of computing (like the linked list) to be looked at in my opinion. The Patent Office just doesn’t have the staff to give each application the diligence it needs and the subsequent backlog is increasing as is the number of submarine patents and patents awarded despite overwhelming prior art. Obviousness and prior art is supposed to invalidate a patent but this doesn’t stop anyone from trying their luck. Amazon are frequently quoted in geek forums for this. Trying to cash in once someone big enough does something of note (Smartphones) or popular (online games) that may possibly be covered by a vague patent is big business.
Finally, the tide may finally be turning.
Speaking as a developer I was glad to hear about a project that aims to address the inherent problems with the system with regard to software. Imaginatively called End Software Patents, it seeks to highlight the absurdity in the idea that source code and natural mathematics can somehow be patented.
Microsoft has been sabre-rattling of late, claiming that Linux infringes on hundreds of patents that they hold (read: purchased). Co-incidentally, they do have a very pertinent patent for detecting user frustration when using their software.
Just as I was beginning to think that the UK was understanding some of the problems with legal aspects of software and the implications of software patents it looks like we’re heading in the same direction. The UK government is currently embroiled in a legal case with Symbian which will hopefully clarify things.
Just don’t get me started on gene patents.
“I’ve made some mistakes with my selection of rides before.”
- Tony McCoy
The main reason why things have been quiet of late on my blog of late has been researching the big horse race that took place today.
Over the past several years I’ve taken several hundred pounds from the bookies on the Grand National. Before today, the only time that I’ve failed to get a substantial return this decade was the year I actually went to the race. The appealing triad of Tony McCoy, Jonjo O’Neil and JP McManus involved with a previous Irish National winner (Butler’s Cabin) called to me like the Sirens. All was looking good until eight fences from home when my main gamble fell.
Thankfully, I had a back-up bet with an each way bet on Snowy Morning.
Net result this year? A loss of 50 pence.
Somehow life will go on.