Last week was pretty busy with work and it looks set to be fairly hectic till the end of the year, which for me ends December 14th due to all the vacation days I have left! In the week directly before Christmas I’ve planned a short trip to Amsterdam for a couple of days - I last went their when I was 14 (9 years ago) so it will be nice to see it again and hopefully take the camera through its paces.
Recently I was helping giving my uncle some advice about buying a new computer - he showed one particular model he was looking at and I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw the operating system options:
Yep, that’s right you can “upgrade” to Windows XP from Vista for £50! I think that says it all with regards to how well received Vista has been. I have Vista on my work laptop but have just about had enough of its sluggishness and unnecessary eye-candy - I’ll be downgrading to XP or upgrading to Ubuntu as soon as I have time.
On an unrelated note, an interesting article in the NY Times:
“South Korea boasts of being the most wired nation on earth. In fact, perhaps no other country has so fully embraced the Internet. Ninety percent of homes connect to cheap, high-speed broadband, online gaming is a professional sport, and social life for the young revolves around the “PC bang”, dim Internet parlors that sit on practically every street corner…”
Unsurprisingly many young people in South Korea have developed an acute problem with Internet addiction, with people literally dropping dead from exhaustion, which has led the government to set up an “Internet Rescue Camp” as well as 100’s of counsellors and treatment programs. It’s an interesting reflection on the impact that the technological revolution has had on those on the cutting edge and you can be sure it’ll be the same in the west in less than a decade. Maybe there is something in being an analogue person…
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Looking at the submitted designs in the “Love Your Earth” designboom competition, for artwork to raise awareness about the environment, there are some are pretty cool entries ~ in particular these two which are very simple but effective ~ the left one was the overall the winner [via].
I can’t help that worry that “being green” has become fashionable for the sake of ones image rather than the sake of the environment (no, recycling does not justify your Chelsea tractor). Climate change has certainly gone a long way up the news agenda in the past year, which can only be a good thing, but at the end of the day actions speak louder than words…
Elsewhere… Here in the UK it’s finally iDay which sees the launch of the fabled “Jesus Phone” (their words not mine!). You know where I’ll be at 6.02pm tonight 
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Somehow today’s Dilbert seems worryingly close to the truth… how did anyone survive before the Internet? Are we all becoming information addicts? Lets look at the positive and negative effects of this:
- Pros - Know lots about stuff, approximately 20% of it is useful, 80% completely inane. 24/7 instant access to more information than is comfortably conceivable.
- Cons - Every free waking moment is taken up cramming more of it leading to a restless hunger and thirst for more. Slow death of the physical library and the dewey index.
Q) Is there such a thing as being too well read? Discuss.
If you like the work of Scott Adams you might want to check out his blog - it’s a good read.
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Last week saw a terror alert in central London sparked by a pot of burning chillies in a Thai restaurant which some people confused for a chemical attack. Funnily the chef didn’t even realise as he was used to the smell!
Not far away some equally fiery chillies were about ready for the picking at my very own chili plantation! You may remember back in May I planted 7 “Demon Red” chili plants - unfortunately growing conditions this summer have been pretty poor with the strange weather we’ve had in the UK. Given this the speed of growth and yield have been below expectations but there were still reasonable results and the above are the first harvest!
I cooked some last night in a pasta sauce and can confirm that they indeed live up to their name 
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September was all about Korea so it’s about time to get back to the basics and a little more random! The past few weeks have been predictably busy at work. I’ve been busy designing a web service API (Application Program Interface) for a major organisation which basically allows it to syndicate it’s content and data to others for various purposes. It’s been an interesting challenge with many different aspects to it, not just technical, but that’s about all I can say here!
iPhone UK Launch
We’ve been waiting so long for this magical piece of technology to hit British shores that you would imagine the hype would have died down by now but since getting my hands on an iPod Touch for a few minutes I for one am still very excited! Yes, it’s not cheap, not 3G yet, and Apple haven’t exactly warmed to the 3rd party apps/hacks but it still marks a landmark device which fuses a host of technologies in revolutionary ways to create something pretty unique. The iPhone is just the first step in changing the way we interact with technology, the internet, and ultimately each other. I’ll certainly be lining up on Nov 9 to get my hands on it!
Harry Potter - WARNING: *POTENTIAL SPOILERS*
During my long flights to and from Korea I read the final Harry Potter instalment. To be honest I was a little disappointed. Two-thirds of the book are spent with the characters in a tent arguing with each other and the rest watching countless other characters getting killed in rather predictable ways. After all that Rowling could have at least killed Harry off properly without all this resurrection nonsense and then a sappy flash-forwards to their future lives. I guess there’s no satisfying everyone and it’s somewhat sad to see the end of the series.
China Is Getting Ready
“In the name of ensuring stability and harmony in the country during the 2008 Olympic Games, the Chinese Government continues to detain and harass political activists, journalists, lawyers and human rights workers. Get involved: www.amnesty.sk” [via]
I know Amnesty is somewhat controversial but I still wholeheartedly believe that China are continuing to sweep human rights under the proverbial carpet. It’s such a shame because the Olympics were the perfect opportunity for China to clean up it’s act. As I once heard someone say, China likes to seem democratic on the outside but on the inside it’s as despotic as it ever was. The sad thing is that many of the Chinese I’ve spoken to don’t really care as long as they have a satisfactory quality of life.
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