If there’s one thing I’m a sucker for, it’s medieval mysticism and conspiracy a la Eco‘s Templar plots in “Foucault’s Pendulum” [currently reading] or the fictitious renaissance seer Rambaldi who supplies much of the macguffinalia of Alias.
So finding a post on Tesugen which mentioned Raymundus Lullus set me going a treat.
Who was he?
Read More »
Dan picks up on the Apple luxury item Nick Hornby took on his Desert Island, thus destroying the entire premise of the show:
“He pretty much single-handedly destroyed 60 years of radio show – the 8 records he’d chosen paled into insignificance compared to the 10000 he’d just snuck on to the notional island in his pocket”
^ Cover of The Economist, November 23rd-29th, 2002 © The Economist
Today is my last day at the BBC. It’s been a hard, but fun two years where I’ve had the chance to work on some cool projects (BBCi Search, iCan) and with some great people.
Next up for me is a bit of an adventure. I’m moving after 8 years in London [here it is, putting on an amazing show {via 2lmc}], to Helsinki, Finland; where I’m going to be joining Nokia. On my contract it says “Manager, concept development”, which actually means I’m going to be working in the user-experience area of their Insight & Foresight division.
I&F is charged with looking at “disruptive technologies” and trends. I’ll be working to make the insights the tech and business people have with us user-focussed folk into concrete things. Prototypes or illustrations that communicate these ideas clearly to the rest of the business.
The Economist cover pictured above has haunted me for a year or so, so I’m really happy that I can start working in the sphere of mobile, personal, social technology.
I think it’s going to rock.
A range of t-shirts, based upon a phrase I find myself thinking over and over in my head whenever I talk to someone who works in “teeeeveeee”.
Today I get a new look for BBJ/work, which will ripple through the rest of the site once I have the time. I broke one of my own rules [which are made to be broken, after all], in that I designed it, but didn’t code it myself – instead my massive thanks goes to Tom for coding up my spiffing new template for kicks, and an Alias boxset.
The design is massively influenced by Jessica Helfand and Bill Drenttel‘s work, specifically the jacket design for Jessica’s book of essays on information and interaction design: “Screen”.
There are a few rough edges, and a few bugs, which will get ironed out in the next few days once I understand what’s going on. Leave bug reports or general brickbats in the comments to this post if you feel like…
Nodes. No point.
“Somewhere, somehow, we told people that everything about computers should be easy and intuitive. That you shouldn’t have to learn anything, or read manuals. That you should be able to grasp everything in ten or fifteen minutes. What nonsense. Some things just aren’t easy. Quantum mechanics. Tensor calculus. Navajo verbs forms. Old Norse. Getting rich.” – Mark Bernstein
I dig those cartoony introduction to quantum mechanics and old norse books however. Via Victor.
Punyhuman#1: “what i’ve never been able to figure out is, how come the federation never figured out how to combine their ‘tricorder’ technology with their communicators? and, apparently, they develop something called a PADD around the TNG era. that’s three separate interfaces that we’ve been able to combine into one! what gives with that? star trek is my template for tech development, and it’s starting to piss me off — we’re surpassing them in usability! my illusions are like so totally shattered.”
Punyhuman#2: “The Federation is run by Communists. Having a tricorder factory, a PADD factory, and a communicator factory lets them keep more proles on the dole. Of course, anyone who asks too many questions gets assigned to the Enterprise and issued a red shirt.”
Sunny here. Work now.
Delegates at the UK’s most important TV industry conference voted on scenarios for 2010 and plumped for the end of linear, time-bound TV (3 years earlier than my 2013 stories…)
[scenario] 5 Death of linear TV: Broadband internet and personal video recorders (PVRs) grow rapidly and films and sports become available online causing broadband penetration to reach 35% and undermining pay TV. PVRs in 35% of homes mean that viewers watch 40% of programmes at different times and skip the ads.
How they voted: 39% of the delegates decided that the death of linear TV was the most likely scenario”
Outboard brainfood:
Soybeans solve the free-riders problem:
“A new study shows that soybean plants can apply sanctions against symbiotic bacteria when the bugs don’t deliver their fair share of nitrogen.”
“The work… portrays symbiotic relationships “not as a simple, friendly interaction where every party happily gains, but as trade with a dark side: ‘Provide the resource I require and I will reciprocate; do not, and suffer dire consequences.'”
BRIC: The Dark Side of Cooperation
[Thanks Fiona…]
“The Institute of Physics has asked a contemporary dance company to produce a new work marking the centenary of the 1905 publication of Einstein’s most famous and important ideas.
“Dance is an expressive medium,” said Jerry Cowhig of the Institute of Physics. “It will be ideal for abstract concepts like the theories of Einstein on everything from tiny atoms to the dynamics of the whole cosmos.”
» Guardian: Arts: A dance to the music of spacetime
[via Aula]
Petafloptimism 
