Thanks to Miles Berry who alerted me to the fact Google Maps now provides satellite imagery of the UK. And doesn’t obscure sensitive locations either!
Category Archives: Technology
Steam age communications
When was the last time anyone gave you a telex number? (Does anyone still use telex?) From a manhole cover spotted today.
More: Wikipedia claims that “Telex is still in use for certain applications such as shipping, news, weather reporting and military command.”
What will you do when your hard disk fails?
Note: “when”, not “if”. This morning’s Observer column. Excerpt:
Until recently, hard drive failure was a catastrophe only for really heavy users of computing, or for those running network servers – which is why both those categories of user have always been paranoid about backing up their data. But most ordinary users didn’t keep that much stuff, and in general much of what they did keep consisted of documents that could easily be backed up onto removable disks or filed in paper form.
But about three years ago, millions of such ‘ordinary’ users began buying digital still- and video-cameras and MP3 players. And all of a sudden, their hard drives began filling up with images, movies and music that really mattered to their owners because they documented their lives.
eBay and St. Bob
This morning’s Observer column on how eBay management can cope with anything — except an ageing, foulmouthed Irish rock star.
Apple goes for ‘Intel inside’
From this morning’s Observer column.
Here’s one way of looking at it. Apple’s position in the PC industry is very like that of BMW in the car business: small market share; innovative and much-admired products; and a fanatically loyal customer base. I don’t think I ever met a BMW driver who would willingly change to another marque. And much the same goes for Apple users. For these reasons, the rest of the automobile industry is perpetually fascinated by everything that BMW does. Same goes for Apple. In those terms, the processor decision is analogous to BMW deciding that instead of having its engines made by, say, Mercedes, it would henceforth get them from Ford. And that would be big news in the car business.
Bless me, father, for I have Googled
Today’s Observer column on following what Vannevar Bush called “associative trails” — into the confessional.
Cybersecurity
Ed Felten has some interesting reflections on the threat of cyberattack on the US information infrastructure. He puts his finger on the nub of the problem:
the traditional governmental processes are ill-suited for addressing cyberthreats. The main reason is that national security processes result in plans for governmental action; but the cyberthreat problem can be solved only by private action. The cyber infrastructure is in private hands, and is designed to serve private ends. Government can’t easily change it.
So what can be done? One idea he discusses is that since unprotected computers in private hands make the entire infrastructure vulnerable, then perhaps individual computer users ought to be personally liable for damage caused by their carelessness/ignorance. Ed points out that there are lots of things wrong with this idea. But, oddly, he doesn’t discuss another obvious possibility — that software manufacturers like Microsoft should be legally liable for damage caused by the security holes in their products. I’ve never understood why the computer industry should be able to avoid liability in this way. Just imagine the fuss there would be if automobile manufacturers were able to avoid being held responsible for flaws in their products. It’s unthinkable. But we tolerate this crazy situation with computers. Why?
Trendy appliances often least reliable
Well, well… According to this Guardian report,
Dyson vacuum cleaners, Smeg dishwashers and Hoover washing machines may be the more fashionable appliances on the domestic scene, but they are also the most likely to break down, the consumers’ magazine Which? says today. Owners have to have them repaired more often than those who opt for less trendy brands, according to the experiences of nearly 15,000 Which? readers who responded to a survey. People are buying into “fashion” brands for their homes, despite them proving far more unreliable, the researchers say.
So I’ll stick with our boring old Miele, then.
This is not a bookshop
It’s a display case for software manuals.
As such, it’s a testimony partly to the awfulness of computer software and partly to the stinginess of manufacturers who no longer bother to provide proper documentation for their products.
Podcasting museum guides
From an interesting article in the New York Times about another subversive use of podcasting.
If you soak up the Jackson Pollocks at the Museum of Modern Art while listening to the museum’s official rented $5 audio guide, you will hear informative but slightly dry quotations from the artist and commentary from a renowned curator. (“The grand scale and apparently reckless approach seem wholly American.”)
But the other day, a college student, Malena Negrao, stood in front of Pollock’s “Echo Number 25,” and her audio guide featured something a little more lively. “Now, let’s talk about this painting sexually,” a man’s deep voice said. “What do you see in this painting?”
A woman, giggling, responded on the audio track: “Oh my God! You’re such a pervert. I can’t even say what that – am I allowed to say what that looks like?”
Hmmm… An interesting way to bring younger generations back to great art?