Posts by Pete

Next-gen e-book readers to slim down

someone in marketing chose the name..

bad name for a product - try googling c*oler and you don't get anything..

Eventually found it on the Interead website. Am curious to try an ebook.

Phorm boss blogs from a dark, dark place

Just impulse bought www.stopphoulplay.info

any ideas of where I should point it?

Apple banishes Macs to old folks home

Made in Ireland

I have a g4 dual 450 Sawtooth and it's still going strong. It's run reliably for the last 9 years, and is fine for surfing the web / programming / a bit of photoshopping now and again.

One of the things I liked about it was the made in Ireland badge - you don't see that anymore. Everything's assembled by weeping slave children in China.

Not really tempted by a mac now - the imac and mac pro lines haven't been updated for ages now and don't look very good value for money. They really need to do a consumer tower for about £600 with parts you can actually replace yourself.

Boris cans congestion extension

Nice one Boris

I love cycling past people stuck in traffic jams, so I'll be looking forward to doing it more in the future. Shame about the air pollution, but then I don't live in West London and don't have any kids to worry about.

Although it will be annoying to have to listen to motorists complaining about traffic jams even more now they don't have the congestion charge to moan about.

Still - perhaps they could tarmac over some of those annoying parks to make room for the cars?

NASA's curious climate capers

Please don't bash Hansen

Ok so yet another article on the register with a bashing climate change subtext (at least I can comment on this one!)

I met James Hansen when he was in the UK for the court case defending the people with the boats who climbed up the chimney (no I don't work for them, that's really not my style!).

One of the things that struck me when I chatted to him on the train back from Kent was his reluctance to resort to sensationalist language - everything he said was very measured and cautious. He didn't want to get drawn on reports about 'warmest years on record' and freak weather events since they essentially are single events (in the same way that the fact October was chilly in the UK doesn't debunk climate change). He was interested in the potential of 4th generation nuclear power, but was waiting to be convinced that it could be done in a clean way.

He was also quite bemused as his status of being a 'climate change celebrity' - he turned down a request to visit Australia - where there's a lot of anti and pro coal campaigning going on at the moment. The impression I got was of someone who'd really rather be in a lab somewhere doing science.

I think it's difficult to mix science and campaigning - but the potential dangers of climate change are really quite scary, and it's this that prompted Hansen to speak out. After all he first came to fame in the 1980's during a time where there was a lot of politically-inspired whitewashing going on over the climate problem.

With regards to the rest of the article - yes science should be more open - although when the mainstays of the climate change denier lobby are scrutinized they really fall apart.

You can read the statement he made to the court at Kingsnorth here:

http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/files/pdfs/climate/hansen.pdf

and watch an interview here:

http://nonewcoal.org.uk/?q=node/36

OLO promises Foleo-style iPhone-Air laptop combo

Trés bien!

Personally, I think this is a genius idea. But sadly it won't catch on since Apple will probably sue them.

So have a laptop you could slip your iphone into - and then use the iphone as a touchscreen / 3gmodem would be really handy, but then i'm talking of having a functional laptop rather than a dumb terminal. I currently carry a mini EEEpc for typing notes on as well as a phone. Networking the two is impossible.

Perhaps they'll do one for google android instead?

Paris because I can't make the é go the right way.

Nintendo Wii 'like a virus', games boss sniffs

Help

I just can't stop playing MarioKart. I don't know why - the graphics are rubbish (it almost looks the same as it does on the DS) the physics totally unrealistic, and i look like a complete tool holding a disembodied steering wheel in my front room.

But I just can't stop. I keep wanting another go. I cheer when I win - sometimes just crossing the line seconds after blowing up the other players, or eating one of the trippy power ups - I shout 'weeee' when I do a trick on one of the jumps. I get a sinking feeling when the alarm sounds on the tinny wii-mote knowing that some nasty bomb day glow graphics power-up thing has been thrown at me.

MIT plans to roll out 'folding' car

I have a cunning plan

it's for an urban mobility vehicle - it's stackable, cheap and has a quite useful range. It produces no pollution, requires no fuel, and instead relies on a clever transducer which converts the energy in your leg muscles to forward motion.

Perhaps I should go and study at MIT and produce some pretty pictures - all I need to do now is think of something catchy to call it.

Home Secretary in ID card gaffe

She's an idiot

I thought her interview just demonstrated how idiotic the government's plans for id are... particularly the bit about students - as if tuition fees, top up fees, double the interest on loans isn't enough, now they will have to shell out £60 for an id card as well...

The OLPC XO laptop

Green toy or real laptop?

I must admit when the buy one get one scheme was announced I was really tempted to get one (or two) of these laptops to use as a low cost, away from home machine for surfing the web. However after downloading the emulator from the XO website and playing with Sugar (even in a watered down version) I was less than impressed. It has a few nice features, (like the donut and neighborhood view) but it's very basic. It's also not like any computer i've ever used, which begs the question as to how useful it is as an educational tool. I remember Acorn losing out to Wintel in the 1990's because the computers they made were just for education - and learning Word was a lot more useful than learning Acorns' unique Impression dtp program.

So it's not a 'proper' laptop nor an educationally useful one. What exactly is it's purpose?

The OLPC people also seem to be missing something: by not making it easily available XO laptops have already popped up on Ebay at massive markup. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of laptops intended for schoolchildren go missing and end up being flogged on ebay. Perhaps they need to rethink their strategy.

Government rejects elephants for pets e-petition

It's thanks to petitions like these..

...real petitions about important issues like climate change or global poverty or fighting AIDs get swept under the carpet - it's depressing that 'Elephants as Pets' or the Sun's 'we want the red arrows at the olympics' get all the attention.

Kent council approves 'cleaner' coal-fired plant

Don't bash the hippies bash the government...

While gordie and co are busy telling everyone to turn down their heating and fit energy efficient light bulbs, their also considering building more coal fired power stations - the dirtiest, most CO2 polluting form of energy possible.

Greenpeas may be anti nuclear (a bigger argument against nuclear is the dwindling supply of Uranium 238) but they have a point: climate change is really serious, we need to do something about it, and building coal fired power stations is just silly.

I'm up for more windmills, some nice wave power (plenty of that) maybe a bit of tidal, since the moon rarely goes on strike and perhaps a bit of biomass - the huge numbers of futons that appear in skips around london would power an awful lot of homes..