Author: Carrie

  • Record companies: sell records? Us? Don’t be silly

    An illuminating piece by David Hepworth: When you have built up some anticipation around the release of anything, what on earth is the use of delaying that release and allowing that anticipation to fade into disinterest? Public attention is a finite resource and it is quickly diverted on to something else.

  • “The bicycle is a parody of a wheeled vehicle—a donkey cart without the cart, where you do the work of the donkey”

    PJ O’Rourke writes about bikes. Even Dublin, Ireland, has had portions of its streets set aside for bicycles only—surely unnecessary in a country where everyone’s car has been repossessed.

  • Kurt Vonnegut story grids

    This is wonderful. I was at a Kurt Vonnegut talk in New York a few years ago. Talking about writing, life, and everything. He explained why people have such a need for drama in their life. He said, “People have been hearing fantastic stories since time began. The problem is, they think life is supposed to be…

  • Google thinks you’re fat

    Well, perhaps not. But it is steering you towards low-calorie options when you search for recipes. Nicholas Carr on recipes, bias and search engine optimisation: When you’re looking for a good recipe today, you probably don’t reach for Joy of Cooking or Fannie Farmer or some other trusty, soup-stained volume on your cookbook shelf. You probably grab…

  • Is Amazon working on a Kindle tablet?

    I’ll be amazed if it isn’t. Andy Ihnatko: A Kindle Tablet would have an instant clarity with consumers that no other tablet can communicate … not even the iPad. There’s a real perceptual problem with tablets. Just what the hell are they, anyway? And how is the average consumer — someone who’s by no means…

  • Record labels demand all the money in the world. Literally

    Here’s one for fans of idiocy and greed: in their case against file sharing network LimeWire, record labels are demanding sums of money that could exceed $75 trillion. The entire planet’s gross domestic product is $69 trillion per year. What are they thinking? Let The Register explain. The idea that the industry could ask for…

  • The iPad 2 is £399

    That, boys and girls, is Apple waving its arse at its rivals. Wi-Fi only: £399 / £479 / £559 Wi-Fi and 3G: £499 / £579 / £659  

  • Will Twitter get shitter?

    Twitter is five, and like all good five-year-olds it’s about time it paid its way. Me, on Techradar: I was in Glasgow’s famous Sauchiehall Street on Saturday night. If you haven’t been recently, it’s like a Hieronymus Bosch painting where the demons wear too-short skirts or G-Star Raw. It’s genuinely unpleasant, a seething mass of drunken,…

  • Here’s what Apple’s up to with the iPad

    Andy Ihnatko: Many of you were around for the transition from text to graphical user interfaces. Some of you were even around when the world shifted from mainframes to personal computers. Well, congratulations: you’ve lived to see your third revolution in computing. I think the good Mr Ihnatko is bang on the money: the iPad…

  • “An opportunity for Gary to take cheap shots at a band he doesn’t like and sneak in a mention for one he does”

    Jon Bon Jovi reckons Steve Jobs has killed the music business. Sometimes I love my job. By a happy coincidence, I reckon Jon Bon Jovi represents everything that’s wrong with the music business. I think there’s a reason why Bon Jovi albums don’t sell like they used to. It’s because they’re rubbish. And thanks to…