I’m currently writing this from the runway at Manchester Airport. Yes, on the plane. The problem is that we landed over an hour ago after a bumpy landing due to landing gear failure. The wheels went down, but the steering was b0rked and we needed to be towed.
That was only the first problem though, because we only got 200 yards before the tow truck broke down. A replacement was sent, but, incredibly, that broke down too!
We’re currently sat waiting for a replacement truck to tow us across the main runway - two hours after we landed.
Some sad news had just come to my attention. The science fiction author and futurist, most well known for his 1968 novel 2001: A Space Odyssey has passed away at the age of 90 in Sri Lanka after suffering breathing difficulties.
As well as his writing and film making, he was known for his scientific writings, including his proposal of geosynchronous communication satellites, which orbit at an altitude now known as the Clarke Belt.
He will be missed by a great many film and sci-fi fans and scientists the world over.
The new site is an iGoogle type affair with re-positionable content blocks, location specific content and, rather quirkily, a flash rendition of the old BBC clock, which will only be recognisable to those over a certain age.
There was a beta version of the new homepage floating around for a while which garnered somewhat mixed opinion, but it appear that they have launched with pretty much what was on the table then.
Most encouragingly it degrades very gracefully with JavaScript switched off. Also, at the HTML level the page is mostly composed of headings and lists with the layout being entirely derived by CSS.
Apparently having two mobile phones now counts a suspicious behaviour, and people are being encouraged to report anyone they see with two phones to the police.
A new counter-terrorism poster campaign operating in London, West Yorkshire and other areas of the UK urges the public to rat on their fellow citizens for “odd” behaviour such as photographing CCTV cameras. The intent is to “let experienced officers” decide what action to take.
“Terrorists often need communications. They often collect and use many anonymous pay-as-you-go phones, as well as swapping SIM cards and handsets.” - Peter Clarke, Metropolitan Police
Photographers are also singled out, with the public being encouraged to report anything beyond the normal tourist snapping away. For example, there are many fascinating and detailed bridges in the world, but if you photograph them you risk being reported for photographing transport infrastructure.
At the weekend, I was participating in the OpenStreetMap project, which meant I was methodically walking the streets in my neighbourhood carrying a GPS. Of course, to the general public, it wasn’t immediately obvious what I was doing, and although nobody challenged me (indeed on what grounds could they), I got a few odd looks.
The call for the public to notify the authorities of any suspicious behavior so that the police can decide for themselves can only be counter-productive as it will surely result in a sludge of useless intelligence, in which any genuine causes for concern would be lost.
Filed under: General, Videos — James Holden @ 8:53 pm
Having mis-spent a significant part of my youth tinkering with electronics, I was the 10 year old boy who wanted, and got an oscilloscope for my birthday. With the scope in X-Y mode and a couple of function generators, you could produce Lissajous figures by sending different waveforms to the X and Y inputs.
These talented hackers used the stereo output from a PC sound card to drive a scope and did some amazing tricks. It’s all still done on the X and Y inputs though.
Just a quick reminder to everyone that WYLUG is meeting tonight at Leeds University’s E C Stoner building. The meeting starts at 7pm, but the room will be open for refreshments from 6:30pm.
Tonight, we have Dave Fisher and Geoff Richards talking about the OpenStreetMap project.
This has been previously covered at one of the Leeds GeekUp meetings. More details are available on the WYLUG web site.
Working in the messaging industry, I’ve seen my fair share of oddball applications for SMS, but this one’s taking the, erm…. whatever.
In an effort to curb vandalism, some public toilets in Finland are now kept locked until you text the Finnish word for “OPEN” to a number displayed on the toilet door. It’s thought that recording the time and mobile number of all the users of the toilet will act as a deterrent.
I don’t know much about the situation in Finland with pre-pay mobile phones though. In the UK at least, there’s no obligation to register your details with the operator before being able to use the phone. Other options were considered, including the use of CCTV.
This lucky chap scored an unopened Apple IIc from eBay and, rather than sitting on it to accrue more collector value, decided to “unbox” it, 20 years after it left the factory.
I find it fascinating how there has been so little change to their approach to the first user experience, right from the “Open This First” envelope through to the minimalist, product-centric design of the packaging. And… he does look soooo pleased with himself!
David Drummond a Google SVP has written a blog post suggesting that the deal could have serious implications for open Internet standards.
Image credit: swamp_of_dumb over at fark.com
I’d indeed be worried about services such as flickr and the YUI Ajax toolkit, as well as the enormous proportion of web mail accounts that that would be under the control of a single corporation.
Still, we’ll see what the regulators have to say about things.
Frustrated by the ugliness of plugging a USB bluetooth adaptor into my Eee PC, I decided that the best thing I could do was gut a bluetooth adapter and install it internally.
