Monthly Archives: December 2004
Powerbook owner caught in Tidal Wave
One annoying thing about the news coverage of the Asian Tidal wave is the way in which the media can’t help fussing about “how did this happen?” “Why weren’t we warned,” the interviewers ask, “can’t we be protected from these … Continue reading
Trampoline – today’s favourite word
Dictionary.com/trampoline: “trampoline n. An incredibly hairy technique, found in some HLL and program-overlay implementations (e.g., on the Macintosh), that involves on-the-fly generation of small executable (and, likely as not, self-modifying) code objects to do indirection between code sections. These pieces … Continue reading
Trans fats and health
Speaking of hydrogenated vegetable oil, here’s a list of the bad things it does, from tfX, the UK campaign against trans fats in food: raise LDL (Low-Density Lipo-proteins, known as “bad” cholesterol) and lower HDL (High-Density Lipo-proteins, known as “good” … Continue reading
I know, it’s a party. But still…
I was helping put out the food at the daughter’s school Christmas party yesterday. I found it a bit disturbing for several reasons. The first thing that worried me was that I seemed to be the only person helping who … Continue reading
Return of the Flying Toasters
I noticed today that one of our fancy flat screen LCD monitors seems to have the corporate log-in window burned into it. In the good old days we used to have screensaver programs which prevented the icons on our desktops … Continue reading
Everyone is a Terrorist
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Iraq faces descent into chaos, says CIA chief: “In a speech to US marines in Camp Pendleton, California he [Mr Bush] described the war in Iraq as part of the global struggle against terrorism … Continue reading
Bhopal Hoax
On Friday BBC World TV broadcast an interview with a man called Jude Finisterra who claimed to be a spokesman for Dow Chemical, the current owners of Union Carbide, the company which caused the Bhopal Disaster in 1984. In the … Continue reading
Not-so-secret Santas
Here’s a site that deserves some attention, if only to correct its Brummie bias. A collection of photos and reviews of spectacular Christmas decorations created by private individuals on their houses and in their gardens. Since the site carries the … Continue reading
Toys
Don’t get me wrong, I consider myself an internationalist and I have a deep interest in and enthusiasm for China. Even so, I got really depressed while Christmas shopping in the toy department of John Lewis because almost everything they … Continue reading
Interesting for Web Designers only
It seems a sensible enough idea: show people web pages, track their eye movements while browsing and voila – you can figure out which page designs work best. It’s the sort of thing that marketing people (booo hiss) love and … Continue reading