Archive for May, 2005
A real rhyming dictionary
The OEDILF is an attempt to define every word in the English language - in the form of a limerick. For example:
aglycone by Chris Doyle (Limerick #5325)
When a glycoside enters the gut,
By hydrolysis it will be cut.
The aglycone’s the part
That will pass to the heart
While the sugar goes straight to the butt.
(uh-GLY-kohn)
It’s quite spectacularly pointless, and therefore utterly brilliant.
[Via BoingBoing]
The portable, skinnable 9p PDA
Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing a lot of running around, and I’ve had to carry a fair bit of information - figures, addresses, maps etc - around with me. My smartphone isn’t really up to the job, especially when I want to scribble a quick note or give someone directions, so it’s with a certain amount of delight that I’ve discovered the portable, skinnable 9p PDA. It’s only digital in the sense that you hold it in your digits when you use it; it’s a memo pad from Asda that did indeed cost 9p. I bought a whole bunch of them the other week and I’m already wondering how I managed without them.
It’s reminded me of something that tech journalists shouldn’t forget: sometimes a 9p book of lined paper is more useful than a £400 digital gizmo.
Of course, if you’re a show-off you could always use the Hipster PDA instead.
Slowly Downward
Stanley Donwood is the man responsible for Radiohead’s iconic artwork, and he’s just updated his own web site. In addition to things you can buy, there’s also an extensive collection of little stories and paragraphs, some of which are rather disturbing.
This is “Another Story about Vampires”:
There are a lot of good things about being a vampire, but morally it’s fairly indefensible. I like to think that I’m quite a reasonable sort of person. Like most people, I’ve done plenty of things that I’m not too proud of, and a few that I really regret. You might find it tricky to believe, but there are a fair number of people around who are attracted to vampires and vampirism as a sort of lifestyle thing, and a larger number who just don’t mind dying.Mostly, I put adverts in the personal columns, and when we meet I go to considerable lengths to explain the options and what they entail. If they’re not completely into the idea, we part company there and then. Well, usually, anyway. As I say, I’m not proud of everything I’ve done. Sometimes things just get out of hand.
I love this stuff.
How to sit at a computer
Sensible advice from ergonomics.com.au (via Lifehacker).
Why cheese unladed it obnoxiously?
Sometimes spam text - the stuff designed to get through your junk filters so you see the embedded images - is a work of art. Or at least, better than a lot of modern poetry:
Greetings, Cheyenne!
the friend thrived short. why cheese unladed it obnoxiously? shrilly kettle spun his box inside chief. she caught its hanging leg inside addition. courageously. the past drain during noise, which fed kind, tired play. Devin proofread his deep comparison. i self-sowed Bruce when misdealt me Rose! i dove bad tray, which halterbroke more… but smash sought nut, base dove on an opinion against hard grass:
they wrote his tight crop despite a fixed street, which miscast even. his violent chance partook excepting this owner; true, first property. kind boat basket proved, they began loosely, brightly, inquisitively. an separate fiction forewent on our sea; elastic, ill store. we quick-froze your new blow upon that solid feeling, which sunburned merrily. we overstrew you strange. they sight-read tight thought, which cleped very…
cast the fixed drink,
Cordell CARRILLO.
The great lad-mag cover-up
According to Media Guardian [free registration required], Tesco will move lad-mags such as Zoo and Nuts towards the top shelf, and position them in such a way that their covers are obscured. The move is because it’s becoming increasingly difficult to tell the difference between some lad-mags and pornographic magazines, and Tesco says it’s in response to customer complaints.
It’s an interesting development: Tesco isn’t censoring the magazines at all, but by changing their position on the newsstands and placing them in such a way that only the title of the magazine is visible, they could damage the magazines’ sales. Magazine covers are a key sales tactic, so much so that a duff cover can seriously damage the sales of that particular issue; the whole point of a cover is to jump out at you from the shelf and shout “buy me!”. Tesco is effectively saying to the publishers of these magazines, “if you want your titles to look like porn, we’ll treat them like porn.”
It’ll be interesting to see whether Tesco applies the same tactic to some of the more sexually oriented “grown up” men’s magazine covers, or whether it stops selling (or at least, stops displaying) the downmarket tabloids whose covers are just as sexual as the lad-mags.
Bill’s back with the bloggers
A few months ago Bill Gates sat down with gadget weblog Gizmodo; this time, he’s blethering to Engadget. The emphasis so far is on Windows Mobile and Xbox 360, and the second part of the interview should be posted later today.
Can an Aston Martin turn you into a Tory?
There’s a wonderful article in today’s Guardian based on a recent survey, which suggested that the car you drive reflects your political beliefs. Naturally, the Guardian had to test this theory - so they got Boris Johnson to pootle around in a Kia while Robin Cook wafted around in an Aston Martin. Both men rise to the occasion, and the result is a tongue-in-cheek delight.
I’m not in hospital, hip hip hooray
Well, today’s the day I was supposed to go into hospital for a back op, and instead I’m sitting here blogging away. Naturally, my body has decided to mark this happy date by resurrecting the sciatic pain as part of its ongoing Campaign To Piss Me Off, and it’s been doing so very successfully for the last few days.
It’s nowhere near as bad as before (and I’m not taking any painkillers of any description at the moment), and crucially it seems to go away again after a brisk walk - something that definitely wasn’t the case over the last few months. It’s fairly obvious that I’m not out of the woods yet, but I’m pretty sure that even if the pain returns with a vengeance I’m not going to reschedule the operation. After all, it’s gone away once and if it returns, it’ll go away again.
I’m still pissed off about it, mind you ;-)
There’s an interesting article in today’s Glasgow Herald about the Scottish NHS, by the way (I won’t bother linking as they don’t seem to keep content up after 24 hours): our health service is so far behind the English NHS it beggars belief. According to The Herald: “While just one patient in England waited more than six months to see a consultant for a hospital appointment last year, 45,056 people in Scotland faced such a lengthy wait.”
Quick review: Logic 3 i-Station for iPods
There are lots of speaker add-ons for the iPod, and they tend to fall into one of two categories: great but expensive goodies such as the Bose SoundDock, and rubbish external speakers you’d expect to find on a cheap PC. The i-Station doesn’t fall into either category, and while it’s definitely got some bad points it’s still rather nifty. I bought one the other day, so here’s a quick review.
The good points:
* It’s a lot louder than you’d expect, and the sound quality is very good
* It’s a 2.1 system, and its little subwoofer is surprisingly effective
* If you run it on AC power, it charges your iPod
* It comes with various adapters so you can use it with any dock-compatible iPod, Mini or Photo
* It runs on AA batteries
* The power brick comes with both UK and EU plugs
* It’s very small
* It’s reasonably cheap
* It doubles as an iPod dock and includes FireWire and USB cables
* The back of the unit doubles as a protective case for travelling
* It works with anything thanks to the (included) line-in cable
* It’s better than broadcasting to your stereo with an iTrip (and legal!)
And the bad:
* You have to shove the iPod onto the connector with some force, and the iPod wobbles when it’s sitting there.
* There aren’t grilles on the speakers, so it’s easily damaged
* It’s pretty ugly
* It’d be nice if there were forward and back buttons in addition to the volume controls
* The 3D button attempts to make the sound “wider” but often introduces distortion
* Sound quality depends on well-encoded MP3 files
The i-Station is currently £49 from Amazon or £59 in the high street.