Geek transportation

Yesterday, after the kids had bounced up and down on the back seats and checked the HiFi, and I had solemnly examined the electronics, we bought a Toyota Prius.

It’s got a daft name and is nothing to look at, but it’s revolutionary (well, for the automobile industry anyway) underneath the surface. It’s the only hybrid drive car available in the UK (Honda make one which is available in the US, I think), has sensational fuel consumption (65.7 mpg) and very low emissions (104 g/km — low enough to exempt it from the London Congestion Charge) — and the government gives you money (£700 I believe) if you buy one. We’re collecting it on July 5.

I bought it mainly because I’m feeling increasingly uneasy about sitting in traffic jams doing little other than warming the planet. I’ve driven Saabs for 25 years and loved their safety and reliability, but when I looked to see what they could offer by way of fuel economy and emissions in their new cars, it became clear that they haven’t even begun to think about the problem.

One reason I investigated the Prius was that prominent members of the geek community in the US (e.g. the NYT’s David Pogue) have been extolling their virtues. After I’d announced our decision, I was told that Harrison Ford drives one. Not sure this is much of a recommendation. But Quentin has just pointed me to Matthew Wilson’s Blog. Matthew is a serious geek and has bought the top-of-the-range model — “A black 2004 Prius with all of the options. I mean everything. GPS navigation, bluetooth phone hookup, speech recognition, in-dash 6 disc CD changer (tape too), driver and passenger airbags, side impact airbags, side curtain airbags, HID headlights (you know, the annoying blue ones, like on BMW’s), smart entry and ignition (no keys, just the fob, and you don’t take it out of your pocket)”. Mine’s just a modest T4, and I feel envious already. Sigh.

Go to Google, enter “out of touch management” (without quotes), and click I’m Feeling Lucky. Talk about being hoist with one’s own petard … [Source:Technology Review RSS Blog Feed]

Bug update

My new DAB radio is indeed interesting. Apart from the ‘rewind’ caching facility, it also has a slot for a Secure Digital card (the kind that many digital cameras use), so one can record off-air. (Er, for one’s own private use, of course.) And it has a USB port. Which at 128kbps makes for good quality MP3 recordings. Hmmm… this has intriguing possibilities. Somebody’s put a lot of thought into this little gizmo. In fact, if it weren’t such a terrible joke, I’d say s/he was a dab hand at design.

The Bug

This, believe it or not, is a really neat DAB radio.

What makes it really interesting is that it has local storage — so it caches the current programme, enabling one to do instant rewind. It’s the beginning of TiVO for radio. Oh, and it’s also an alarm clock.

Anyone for coffee?

A nice moment snatched at my meeting in RAB today.

How I feel just now

While putting out newspapers for the recycling men, I noticed this cover from the Guardian Magazine.

Needless to say, I had been too busy to read it at the time. Interesting also that the computer is a Mac. And only 251 unread messages. Hmmm…

D-Day Gratitude

Lovely snippet from Quentin’s diary for June 6 anniversary:

“D-Day Yesterday, my father (in England) called my father-in-law (in the US) to thank him for his part in freeing Britain 60 years ago. I’m ashamed that it never occurred to me to do the same.

May those of us who are so ready to criticise what America has done since Vietnam never forget what it did beforehand.”

Amen. That’s one of the reasons I feel so infuriated about the damage Bush Jr is doing to his country.

Ten years on

It’s ten years since the OJ Simpson trial. Professor Alan Dershowitz was on Radio 4 talking about the extraordinary interest the trial generated. He recalled being in Jerusalem for a meeting with leading politicians when the Prime Minister (Benjamin Netanyahu) asked him to step into his office for a “confidential conversation”. After closing the door, Netanyahu said, “Tell me, Professor, did OJ do it?” Dershowitz replied: “Prime Minister, does Israel have nuclear weapons?” Nice riposte, eh? And a good story. Wonder if it’s true.

Game, set and match — to Linux

The IT infrastructure for this year’s Wimbledon tennis tournament will be powered by Linux.

Ulysses for dummies

There’s a lot of begrudgery around. Roddy Doyle, for example, has some fatuous views about Ulysses — “over-long, over-rated and un-moving”. (Which neatly summarises my view of Mr Doyle’s extensive oeuvre, by the way.) There’s also a lot of comment on the lines of “it’s such a long and difficult book, isn’t it?” To ease the plight of the intellectually challenged, the BBC has a Cheat’s Guide to the novel and solicits vox-pop views. (Sample: “Man goes for a walk around Dublin. Nothing happens — David Mosley, Newport Pagnell.) But it’s saved by appending Stephen Fry’s riposte:

“Lord help us all. ‘Pretentious drivel’, ‘better off with a good walk rather than reading dusty books’. What possible hope is there for a country which with such self-righteous philistinism scorns its own treasures? Ulysses is the greatest novel of the twentieth century. It is is wise, warm, witty, affirmative and beautiful. it is less pretentious than a baked bean. Read it. read it out loud to yourself. It won’t bite. It wasn’t written either to shock or to impress. Only pretentious barbarians believe artists set out shock: and how these philistines delight in revealing how unshocked they are. Those who attack it are afraid of it and rather than look foolish they prefer to heckle what they don’t understand. Ignore all this childish, fear-filled criticism, Ulysses will be read when everything you see and touch around you has crumbled into dust. Stephen Fry, London, UK”