almost witty

The last 24 hours of Twitters

These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours…

• 09:33 is surrounded by slightly grumpy americans asking how you spell bath #
• 09:58 is wondering whether americans travelling to the uk have to register the address where they are staying. #
• 10:05 is mildly astonished at how many suitcases one person can take to the airport #
• 11:54 will be sitting next to a Scientologist for the next six hours. #

Powered with LoudTwitter

The last 24 hours of Twitters

These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours…

• 19:58 Has put his out of office on. Yahoo! #

Powered with LoudTwitter

How can we take the time if we never make the time?

There’s a fascinating article in the Washington Post about what happened when they persuaded a world-class violinist, using a rare Stradivarius, to play some of the world’s ‘best’ classical music purposes while standing on an intersection in a busy Washington D.C. Metro station. Would commuters stop, and listen in awe - or move on in their busy lives?

Ironically, the article itself - as presented on the web - is so hideously long and complicated, I had to skim-read to find out what happened next. So the article online is definitely not a work of art.

Bloody stupid fuel protestors

Kill for Fuel

Originally uploaded by Paul Hudson

Yet again, Britain’s lorry drivers are reacting to the rise in fuel-prices by launching a demonstration across London and disrupting traffic everywhere.

While I applaud and support their right to protest, their Canute-like stance against rising fuel prices (”cut the tax! It’s making us uncompetitive!”) doesn’t exactly address the reasons behind the tax rises. Sure, part of it is about raising money for the evil government - but part of it’s also about trying to encourage people not to drive so much.

What happens when petrol goes above £2 a litre? £5 a litre? That future isn’t that far away - and the more these lorry drivers try to deny the future and think about the present, the worse the problem gets. Find other ways of transporting, cut down on your costs. Or wait till the government nationalise your industry, if it is so important to the logistics of the country (which it undoubtedly is)

For these reasons, all these fuel protestors make THE LIST.

The last 24 hours of Twitters

These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours…

• 12:57 is somewhat disappointed by one of his friends #

Powered with LoudTwitter

The last 24 hours of Twitters

These are the Twitters I sent over the last 24 hours…

• 10:45 is musing to never look at a site called HotForWords on a work connection #
• 13:17 is laughing at Jeremy Clarkson’s unique description of my workplace: tinyurl.com/3tyl9t #
• 18:08 Is wishing more women would wear t shirts proclaiming "i love the geek" like the woman on the bus! #
• 18:31 Has just walked past will self and phil collinson on a gloriously sunny day in london town. #

Powered with LoudTwitter

Wired UK - take two…

Wired UK magazine

Originally uploaded by jovike

Back in 1994, Wired magazine tried to launch a UK version, working closely with the Guardian. Since I was barely in university, I couldn’t afford to waste precious money on such a future-looking magazine, so it came and went from my local newsagent but Jem Stone has kindly linked me to a fantastically grimly hilarious email about the trials and tribulations of Wired UK take 1.

Skip to today, and Conde Nast (the current publishers of Wired) have also announced plans to take Wired to the UK - to be edited by the Jewish Chronicle’s editor, David Rowan.

Not being part of the A-list (or even C-list) crowd of tech journalists, I can’t help but to wonder if it’s going to work second time around, just when the credit crunch is slowly being felt and the second dotcom boom is beginning to fade as a consequence. Besides which, I can only think of a couple of Brit-based tech journalists off the top of my head. And one of them only because she has a fantastically unique name.

There is a rising appetite for gadget magazines in the UK, already well served by the likes of Stuff and T3, but merging that with the internet era on a dead tree format? I’m assuming that TechCrunch UK and sites like it aren’t exactly burning up page impressions - and that’s on a free website.

But of course this gets back to my personal flaw in offering problems and reasons not to do something - but never to point out a solution.