Published on
July 18, 2010 in
Rants.
I ventured out on my bike over the weekend for the first time in ages. Nothing too strenuous – a short climb on the road to the canal and an eventual 16km loop back home.
There is a well-established hierarchy on the road: truck drivers hate cars, car drivers hate cyclists and cyclists hate pedestrians. It works the other way along the chain too. Where does this stem from? Sheer embittered experience.
Within 50 meters of leaving the flat, two pedestrians started to cross the road – against the suggestion from the signal – and walked right in front of me. I gave them a good shout and they thankfully managed to jump back before I ploughed into them. Further along my way on up to the canal a woman behind the wheel of a BMW blithely ignored the protocol of giving way to your right at a roundabout and pulled straight out. Thankfully my brakes were up to the task asked of them.
It has been quite a while since I last rode along the Union canal towpath and in the meantime some helpful soul has erected signs asking cyclists to slow down to a near walking pace. These signs have now been officially replaced by British Waterways. Apparently I’m one of the few cyclists who sound their bell when approaching pedestrians. Of course, this makes absolutely no bloody difference if those walking in front of me are listening to their iPods at full volume1.
Everyone, for the love of Pete, please, please bloody well pay attention to those around you and obey the rules – no matter what your mode of transportation.
1 I’m thinking of strapping one of these to my top tube to replace my bell.
Published on
July 1, 2010 in
Apple.
There’s been a whole lot of anger about the reception issues on the new iPhone 4 lately and I can’t help but be reminded of the old joke about the man who goes to see his doctor:
Man: Doctor, it hurt’s when I do this!
Doctor: Well don’t do that then!
Seriously, if holding the phone a certain way does affect performance then I don’t see it being a huge problem to be asked to hold the phone in a slightly different way – and a solution that, frankly, I’d hope most intelligent people could work out for themselves. Others disagree that this is a satisfactory suggestion.
Apple are not the kind of company that releases a product without a lot of thought being put into it (cf. Microsoft Kin). If there was a serious issue then the product would be held back while the situation was fully resolved, as has happened before.
The issue apparently stems from an FCC regulation about the amount of radiation that should be directed at your head.
Next week will all but certainly see the introduction of the fourth generation of Apple’s iPhone. There has been an uncharecteristic spate of leaks that have pointed us towards the upcoming new features of the new product, the main one being a forward-facing camera.
I’m not sure about elsewhere in the world but video calling was the big thing that carriers hoped would justify the massive investments they paid in license fees for the nascent 3G technology a decade ago1. There was just one problem: hardly anybody wanted to make those video calls.
If there is one company that can (and does) change attitudes by implementing things differently – and usually a whole lot better – than everybody else it’s Apple. Maybe the bigger screen will help, maybe the famous Steve Jobs reality distortion field will come into play or maybe iChat integration will be the game changer.
1 As an aside, don’t old BBC News website items look really strange? Every iteration seems to upset users but they’ve all been invariably for the better.
Published on
April 29, 2010 in
Economy.
I was reading the Observer UK Factfile at the weekend and something struck me as a little weird. Apparently in 2009 we exported £12.4bn in petrol and imported £14.5bn of the same commodity.
Nobody yet has been able to explain to me why this happens instead of just using what we would normally export and importing £2.1bn.
Published on
April 20, 2010 in
Personal.
I’m a little disappointed at how seemingly everything is being marketed as belonging to a zero-sum situation at the moment.
The main example of this mantra at the moment is the flawed argument that HTML5 will kill flash. Nonsense. There is a situation for either one.
Replacing the single-use (albeit massively entrenched) scenario of video does not sound the death knell for Flash.
Published on
March 31, 2010 in
Personal.
Now that the clocks have changed again most people are assuming that it’s summer and we should all be wearing shorts and sunglasses. Realistically, this heralds springtime more than anything else and rain – even snow – shouldn’t come as much of a surprise to anyone.
That said, I have entered the “summer Nev” phase and shaved off my beard.
I think that the beard had served its purpose over the winter months and I was in distinct danger of becoming almost fashionable.
Published on
March 28, 2010 in
Personal.
The clocks changed last night and we’re now in British Summer Time. I can never remember which way they change and I find the old aide-mémoire “spring forward, fall back” (which I’ve just had to search for on Google) effectively useless. I’ve fallen forward just as many times as I have fallen back – if not more – and my natural tendency would always be to spring back away from something in trepidation rather than springing towards it.
Besides, most of my time-pieces change themselves now which leads me to wander around looking confused for a few hours until I see independent verification of the actual time.
Published on
March 25, 2010 in
Personal.
“He who dies with the most toys is, nonetheless, still dead.”
- Riposte to the No Fear T-shirts of the mid-90s
After four years of student life and nigh on a decade living as a bachelor, I’ve just taken a huge step and moved into a new flat with my girlfriend. To say that I’m excited would be an understatement!
Neither of us have moved in with the other. Reasons of space aside, neutral territory just makes better sense in terms of nullifying any perceived views of encroachment.
I’m finding it sort of depressing having seen my worldly possessions reduced to a stack of cardboard boxes. That said, you can’t pack the ethereal. There is a smidgen of guilt that I didn’t save more money during the time I was living for a lot less. I keep having to remind myself that in that time I not only paid off my overdraft and student loans but I was also fortunate enough to manage an awesome three months on a worldwide trip of a lifetime.
From time-to-time I (and I guess everybody else) does ponder the “what ifs” of life. What if I hadn’t gone to university? What if I hadn’t gone on that trip? What if I hadn’t talked to that person in that bar? Obviously none of us will ever know but this I do know: I am fantastically happy having taken the path I have through life so far – be it through active choice, fate or happy coincidence.
To paraphrase Calvin, following the traditional British route of saving hard for a deposit, taking out a hefty mortgage and obsessing about being a homeowner may be “the done thing” by this stage in my life but I certainly wouldn’t be the person I am with the experiences that I now have had I gone down that path.
Being the first mover in a field can obviously provide you with a tremendous advantage – but only if you get it right. Judging by the response from the rest of the industry, Apple certainly got it right with the iPhone. Decrying the product before it was even released masked a degree of nervousness from the existing handset makers who had seemingly taken their eye off the ball and stopped innovating. Nowadays most smartphones follow the form factor of the iPhone and the result has become patent minefield with companies resorting to sue and countersue.
Palm have suffered badly in recent times, their “iPhone killer” simply hasn’t lived up to scratch. “Killing the iPhone” is a flawed approach and I think Microsoft have been smart enough to realise this with their Windows Phone 7 Series.
