Category: Musings

Whether the weather be hot

Or whether the weather be cold.. Yep, ’tis that time of year again for all good people to head down to the West Country for Glastonbury. Huhroo! The line up is looking wonderful and the weather is deciding if it wants to do the same. It’s bright and sunny now but changing by the minute

So, fingers crossed it will be more flip flops than hiking boots and that my waterproof is the wasted space item this year.

Danger, danger! High alertage!

There’s one of them pesky lil’ rumours going around about a terror attack in the New York subways today. Of course the police have issued a denial, stating categorically that no terror alert is in place for June 11th. No mention of any other day of course… argh! Run away, run away!

Having lived through some of the immediate aftermath of 9/11 I have to say I’m slightly more laissez faire about current threats. Whereas just after 9/11 I would jump at the slightest loud noise, as would most of my colleagues, now I can happily ignore sirens wailing down the street, the repeated clang of collapsing scaffolding sounds and the gently whisper of the approaching nuclear explosion.

I like being back in New York {;)

A new day is dawned..

OK. This is a geek-post, so for those of you who ain’t fascinated by geek-type thangs please switch off now (although I can’t promise that you won’t miss some fine wit and insight if you do.. coff). Anyway, all geeks here now? Sweet…

Well, the secret of eternal happiness is… Hey! Some of you non-geeks are still here! I can see you, skulking around at the back there. Yes, you! It’s no use pretending you’ve read manuals on Java as ‘light bed time reading’ now sonny jim.. off you go. Bye now.

Where was I? Oh yes, the secret of eternal happiness, when it comes to making your website of course, is to get your head round stylesheets. So finally, after many years of being a die hard table coder, I re-vamped this entire site to be stylesheet driven. [Ecstatic cheers from Thompson of ‘better late than never Hobbs!’]

So what does that mean to you my fair reader? Well, for a start the site will probably be misbehaving for a few days while I finish tweaking it. Apologies for that. If you find anything seriously not working then let me know. If it’s not looking like it normally does then you may be on an old browser… IE4 is OLD! Time to upgrade and get with the 90s at least. Well it’s done now anyway, so enjoy the ride ahead!

Re-invention

There’s a philosophy that runs that we’re all just figments of our own imagination, and that everything we perceive is just the construct of our mind. For sure, we can change the way we feel about any situation that happens to us – good or bad can come from any event. People who chose to re-write their own ‘history’ often end up being a lot more successful, until of course they’re famous and the tabloids decide to dig up the ‘truth’. The fact that I am a three time Oscar(TM) winning actor and celebrated photographer should not sway people who meet me in my current incarnation as an international bon viveur and computer geek. Coff…

So it is with that in mind that this article caught my eye… Apparently London has it’s own historical re-invention to go through, claiming to be Brad Pitt rather than Delboy. Hmm…

Emerging wirelessly?

One of the more interesting ideas from yesterday’s Interactive Telecoms Program show I went to at NYU with Paula was the ‘Neighbor Node’ – note Amerikan speeling there. Neighbour nodes are short range wireless networks that anyone can post into within 100m, so the local neighbours. It’s a student project at the moment so not many nodes, but loved the idea – then combined with different levels of nodes for propogation of higher level information. It’s really along the lines of ’emergence’, the idea that systems with simple rules that are applied on a local level can produce higher level order and patterns (on which there’s a great book).

Other things of note:

  • ‘Glowbits‘ – fun glowy lights that slide in and out and seem to hypnotise women… although that may just have been the good looking (semi-geeky) guy demonstrating
  • socialight – a bluetooth application for your phone for meeting people, somewhat along the lines of dodgeball (the founders came from ITP as well)
  • a constantly moving display of triangular wooden blocks with a camera in the middle, that converts the image into rotations of the blocks creating different darknesses of shadow and hence the picture in wood. Hard to describe but very cool indeed.
  • and, of course ‘PacManhattan‘, where real people run around Manhattan as PacMan characters (this got written up in the New Yorker the other week).

Anyone for Sunshine?

Wow! Just saw one of the best films in a while – ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind‘. It’s a Michel Gondrey film, he of the Kylie video with multiple Kylies walking the same route, with a Charlie Kaufman script, he of ‘Being John Malkovitch’ and ‘Adaption’ fame – so it’s probably not a surprise that I loved it given I loved those other films. Kaufman has a very strange twist on modern living and how people interact, creating characters who are often quite extreme emotionally but very believable. In ‘Eternal Sunshine’ the plot revolves around a couple who go through a bad breakup and then have their memories of the relationship erased. I can’t tell you too much because it would spoil some wonderful twists but the principle players Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet are wonderful, and with a supporting cast of A List stars (including the ever lush Kirsten Dunst and the ‘I’m not Frodo’-esque Elijah Wood). Gondrey’s visual manner is, as you would expect, awesome, favouring handheld ‘skakey-cam’ and some great ways to represent the memories being erased Go see it!

In other exciting news – I’m still in New York at the mo… Yep, got convinced into staying a little bit longer since I wasn’t really doing much back in the UK. Guess my travel bug hadn’t quite gotten itself out of my system. Been having a great time catching up with many of the old gang. If anyone’s over here and we havn’t caught up yet I’m going to try and organise some drinks this Thursday and if you want to come along drop me a mail or give me a call (917-915.0015).

Sunny city

Ah, another beautifully sunny day in New York – huzah! It was ridiculously warm last night when I finally got back the ‘burg for the first time this trip. Seemed a lot busier than last time I was there, but that might of just been the weather bringing everyone out to sit and watch the world go by. Meanwhile I’m just glad I’m not living where I used to live in London – right next to Redcliffe Gardens!

There is a pile of interesting news today – aside from the PA who’s been convicted for embezzling 4 million quid from Goldman Sachs, there was also a BBC article on people who
reveal passwords in return for chocolate. Can totally understand though – I get very bored indeed having to remember more than a few passwords. Not sure I’d let someone have my password for a chocolate bar though… maybe two would be better.

Another day, another country..

Yo yo yo! Back in the US of A again kickin’ it large in New York. Always nice to be back in the big apple, and I didn’t even have to give away my identity at immigration after all that worry. Plus JFK has finally finished the SkyTrain which is very nice indeed and only $5 – luverley.

ps, Phone number while I’m in New York is 917-915.0015. Please don’t leave any messages on this phone ‘cos I can’t get to the voicemail! If I don’t answer just try again a bit later. I can get texts (SMS) though for the more phonically advanced amongst you.