Techno arse

Great post on Broadstuff:

If you read Techmeme, the aggregator of news in the Technosphere, you may not have noticed that the world’s financial markets nearly collapsed yesterday and that the world is again looking at a 1930′s style Great Depression scenario. You would not know that artist Damien Hirst flogged off £70m of “fine art” including the Formaldehyde Shark above – nor will you know that art prices nearly always reach top levels at the same time that commercial property development hits the point where it implodes, which is the guaranteed signal of recession.

You will, of course, be very well aware of the latest Apple, Blackberry, Google etc shiny shiny stuff though.

Plastic Logic’s e-book reader: I want one

Details and video at TG Daily.

Manufacturer’s blurb:

Differentiated by a stunning form factor (the size of 8.5 x 11-inch paper), the Plastic Logic reader features a big readable display. Yet it’s thinner than a pad of paper, lighter than many business periodicals, and offers a high-quality reading experience – better than alternatives of paper or other electronic readers on the market today.

The Plastic Logic reader supports a full range of business document formats, such as Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, and Adobe PDFs, as well as newspapers, periodicals and books. It has an easy gesture-based user interface and powerful software tools that will help business users to organize and manage their information. Users can connect to their information either wired or wirelessly and store thousands of documents on the device. The reader incorporates E Ink technology for great readability and features low power consumption and long battery life. The Plastic Logic reader is scheduled to ship in the first half of 2009.

Your future’s orange

My god, this is brilliant. And by brilliant, I mean rubbish.

The Hirer: If you only watch one shoddy online Apprentice rip-off today…

Fake Bake is at an exciting stage on the cusp of development into Niche Markets worldwide so the job isn’t for the faint hearted. Jim is looking forward to seeing the talent coming through and listening to pitches to see if there really is raw hunger, eager to succeed individuals out there to join us and be a part of this growing global organisation.

According to the Herald:

Where Sir Alan offers the winner of each series £100,000 to work for him for a year, the Fake Bake hiree can expect “a competitive five-figure salary and comprehensive benefits package”.

Ten grand and all the fake tan you can eat?

[Thanks, Heather]

Don’t you just hate it when that happens?

Fresno County authorities have arrested a man they say broke into the home of two farmworkers, rubbed one with spices and whacked the other with a sausage before fleeing.

[Via MetaFilter]

Fan hits the shit

You might think I’m only linking to the YouTube clip of Noel Gallagher being attacked on stage so I can use that headline.

You’re right.

It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I’m thinking about iPods

Later today the boffins at CERN will switch on the Large Hadron Collider, which will – depending on who you believe – usher in a brave new era in physics, turn the planet into Swiss cheese, or open a portal for Satan to come and enslave us all. Which may well overshadow the latest iPod.

iPod Nano 4G

It’s a really nice upgrade, I reckon, but I do wonder where the iPod can possibly go from here. Pico-projectors that enable you to show video on nearby walls or bald people’s heads? Integrated kazoos?

Tangent: during the keynote Steve Jobs made it clear that he wasn’t too happy with third-party accessory firms leaking supposedly secret products, as happened with the nano. I wonder if pre-release access to Apple’s plans is going to be more restricted now. Why help add-on manufacturers get to market quickly if they’re going to blow your big reveal?

Got a Sony Vaio? Don’t like fires? You should probably read this, then

Sony’s recalling a whole bunch of Vaio TZ laptops because of an unfortunate “burny burny” feature that’s slipped into some of them. The recall includes these models:

• All model numbers beginning “VGN TZ1″ (e.g. VGN-TZ11XN/B)
• All model numbers beginning “VGN TZ2″ (e.g. VGN-TZ21WN/B)
• Certain model numbers beginning “VGN TZ3″ (e.g. VGN-TZ31VN/R)

Full UK details here. [Via Engadget]

What your taste in music says about you

Pointless but amusing survey via the BBC:

Indie: Low self-esteem, creative, not hard working, not gentle

Chart pop: High self-esteem, not creative, hardworking, outgoing, gentle, not at ease

Jazz: appalling taste in music, ugly shoes

I may have made one of those up.

Thoughts on using Apple’s Time Machine as a remote wireless hard disk

Nope – at least, nope for iPhoto and iTunes libraries. This is a job for Captain Ethernet.

Google Chrome: that’s no moon

Google’s much-anticipated operating system turns out to be real – but it’s built into a browser.