Archive from August, 2004

Crappy Chicken

26 Aug 2004: My former flatmate and I, many years ago, loved spotting risible uses of “n” as a substitute for “and”, especially in shop signs. So much so that we started taking photos of them (“Duckin’n'divin” was a favourite). If we’d had the internet in those days, we’d have put our photo gallery online and become an inexplicably popular cult site. On another theme altogether, but with us in spirit, is this site, which made me laugh like a drain*. Yep, it’s photos of really crap fast-food chicken restaurants, mainly in the UK. You’d have to be very, very drunk at the time… * They do, you know!

One Thousand Reasons

16 Aug 2004: Let’s face it, not many of us have much of an interest in politics outside our own country, but it’s astonishing how the forthcoming US election has galvanised the world’s attention. I doubt if any US president in history has made his country so disliked by the rest of the world, enemies and (reluctant) friends alike. If the whole world could vote in this election, Bush wouldn’t pick up 5% of the vote. But we can’t. Even in so-called friendly countries, like here in the UK, the only people who have any respect or admiration for Bush are opportunistic politicians like Blair. Here are a thousand reasons why you shouldn’t vote for Bush. I’ll admit I’m now ashamed to have [...]

HR-V: top marks from me

10 Aug 2004: Got a new car today. But the picture above is the old one, for posterity. Alex was heartbroken. Three-year-olds don’t realise that people change cars. And they hate change. He’s never known another one. I took a tip from a colleague and hid “a present from the new car” in the back seat when he first saw it. Now he likes the new car, because it gives him chocolate. But I’m sure he’d still like the old car back. It was pretty striking …and strikingly pretty, in my opinion. I remember my neighbour, on first seeing it, commenting: “Honda HR-V? Looks like an Allegro Estate to me”. And do you know? The more I looked at it, the more I [...]

Solidworks 2005 review

10 Aug 2004: Colin’s done a great Solidworks 2005 review at CAD-Reviews.com, and he likes it a lot. Enough said.

Visiting websites without typing

5 Aug 2004: I like this. How do you get web URLs from paper (or other physical media) into people’s PCs, phones, TVs or whatever, when they just won’t type them in? Enter the 2D barcode. It’s easy to represent web URLs in this format. And guess what? Every self-respecting teenager is now walking around with their own barcode scanner (a very sophisticated one, it’s true!) in the form of their camera phone. Put the two together and you can get the public to visit websites without them already being on the web to follow links. If this takes off, expect to see lower-tech applications follow. For example, I’d have thought a 2D barcode scanner could be added inexpensively to your PC mouse, [...]

These ones got people talking

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Me Tweet quite a bit

This blog really has been going a long time, hasn’t it?

Read the old stuff on this natty calendar thingy

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