Second time I have been amazed with technology today! This is a clever ad for a mini. The magazine has a bold black and white pattern of circles. You go to a web page (in German), switch on your webcam and hold the magazine (or a print of the pattern from the web site) in front of the webcam. More »
Monthly Archive for December, 2008
Here is an innovative way to input text on touchscreens. The guys who brought us T9, the predictive text input method now on most mobile phones, have now come up with a new way of entering words without lifting the finger or stylus off the screen. The computer will guess which word we are trying to type. I look forward to trying it out on the iPhone when it is released.
A recent resolution at the United Nations was passed almost unanimously:
By a vote of 180 in favour to 1 against (United States) and no abstentions, the Committee also approved a resolution on the right to food, by which the Assembly would “consider it intolerable” that more than 6 million children still died every year from hunger-related illness before their fifth birthday, and that the number of undernourished people had grown to about 923 million worldwide, at the same time that the planet could produce enough food to feed 12 billion people, or twice the world’s present population. (See Annex III.)
So the USA representative alone thought it is indeed tolerable that these children die from hunger before they are five.
Is it any wonder that the Iraqi “shoe bomber” has become a hero throughout the third world?
I have just discovered Evernote which is a great application for filing anything from ideas to pictures to business cards. You have to see it to believe it. I recommend you look at the introductory video on their site. It works particularly well in conjunction with the iPhone camera. Here is what has been most useful for me: More »
Here is one of those moments where I said to myself: “I wish I had thought of that”.
Several episodes of the classic British comedy series “Dad’s Army” were thought to have been lost, due to the original videotape being wiped for re-use, some 40 years back. More »
If you keep an eye on the BBC News web page, then you probably look at the main headlines on the top right of the page. Now to save space, these are written in a very condensed form, using short words where possible. When I read this post, I realised it could have two opposing meanings on the two sides of the Atlantic. Does it mean the White House gave the bail-out plan a cool, or unenthusiastic reception (British meaning), or were they easy going about it going ahead (US meaning)? Of course it is the former, but a cute example of ambiguity in language I thought…
I read that companies are looking at free, open software, with the current financial problems. Perhaps this is a silver lining of the economic cloud. More »
When we were kids, our parents told us not to spend more money than we need to, to save for a rainy day, etc. In particular, borrowing money was always a bad thing. Being in debt was frowned on. But in the last few years, those in the know, government, banks, and economists, have been encouraging the opposite: spend more and if you don’t have the money, then borrow so you can spend. More »
I work and watch TV at the same time. I have no trouble with that, unless I am reading or writing something I have to concentrate on. I don’t like films or soaps, etc, but documentaries and news mostly. I like to feel I am learning something.
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