Category: Musings

In a shock move BT are now sueing people over the use of the hyperlink. I expect to hear from their lawyers shortly about that last patent infringement…

Well – still have a few shopping days left (now an easier calculation since pretty much everything is open 24×7 in New York) but it feels like Christmas now ‘cos I bought my tree last night. Umm-ed and ahh-ed a little bit and forked out for the bigger tree that only just fits into my stand. Well it fitted after I’d hacked off a few more bits with the infamous screwdriver/hammer tree trimming kit. Now all I need is some tinsel, lights and hangy things to put on it. I did have a lot of lights but they’re now all wrapped around the sprinklers on the ceiling…

Slight update to the site. Added some ‘useful’ links to the side bar to sweeten your day. Any further suggestions to the usual address. I might also throw up a message book as well if my fragile ego can deal with the lack of visitors!

An interesting article in New Scientist (which I can’t be bothered to link to) claims that in a survey, people who drank to moderation were more intelligent than those who didn’t drink. Doesn’t shed any light on the causality of that – whether drinking makes you clever or clever people drink (to be less clever).

Meanwhile New York’s chilliness continues unabated as I relive my childhood listening to the Stone Temple Pilots. The cold weather is accompanied by a pruning of jobs at all our major competitors – Viant, Scient, Razorfish et al. I don’t think we’ll be as sweeping as they’ve been thankfully. We hadn’t grown as quickly funded by VC money.

A very scary article about under 16 curfews in the news today. It appears that ‘yob culture’ has taken things a bit too far. If only Chris Evans, father of bloke/yob culture and someone I have widely regarded to be the anti-Christ for many years, had had the foresight to see where he was taking everyone…

Meanwhile, New York’s weather has gone down another notch. The phrase ‘brass monkeys’ seems to be heard around the office a lot, although my landlord insists that the relative chilliness of my apartment is to do with a badly sealed a/c and nothing to do with the lack of warmth coming from the heater. Sigh. They seem to forget that 10 months ago – when it was last cold – my apartment was so hot I had to open windows and regular scaldings occurred from the tap water.

Although I know I’m red-green colourblind (deutenope or protonope I’m not sure about)… it transpires that in fact everyone is more colourblind than some people.

And on that note – sorry for the lack of communique of late. For some reason I’ve not gotten near a computer to put more amusing missives in. This might be related to carrying a paper based recording device around with me… But I’ll leave you with this thought – cell phones are the new cigarettes. They give you cancer, they’re anti-social, you can’t stop using them and they glow at one end. This begs the question – what will be the equivalent of nicotine patches?

Currently in San Francisco having just finished the Personalization Summit. Had a good time catching up with the latest and greatest in personalization technologies (nothing too stunning but some incremental improvements). Some good keynotes.

Now I’m kicking back for a few days to take in the San Francisco lifestyle (thanks to Dave who’s letting me crash over)… The San Francisco office is currently looking very interesting to me. More relaxed than New York. Good office social scene. Fresh start, etc, etc. Who knows. Of course it’s even further away from friends and family (both in England and NYC now) but I always wanted to live out here. Strangely I keep walking passed places from my first trip out here in 1994 – a supermarket has particularly stuck in my mind!

My table from Conran just turned off. I’m currently using it as a desk to type this little missive on and feeling my back praise the skies that I’m not slumped over my coffee table as usual. Now I’m suffering from ‘expensive table dilemmas’ – such as ‘will the oilled bambo placematt I own stain the table?’ and ‘how do I stop it banging my wall and getting chipped?’. It’s a downward spiral from here… oh my god – there’s some dust! Where’s my polish…

Anyways – it’s been a fun, busy, emotionally draining week in all respects. Went to see J Mascis and the Fog at Bowery Ballroom on Wednesday (thanks Jules). Didn’t really tickle my particular biscuit but nice to get out with Jules after so long. The weather’s now taken a turn for the better which is really lovely. And hopefully, now my table’s arrived early, I’m not off to the photography show at Javitz Center.. so I must away…

Winter has returned to New York. It’s bloomin’ freezing again! This is potentially bad for all New Yorkers as Halloween is once again here and most people’s costumes aren’t known for their warmth providing capabilities. So we can expect to see plenty of girls in sexy nurses outfits wearing thermal undies – nice. And plenty of boys in thin superhero costumes wishing they had hired the bear costume they thought would be too warm.

As for me – I’m currently sans costume ideas (much like last year). Went to a Halloween party on Friday without a costume and ended up wearing cats ears and tail (thanks Rachel). As a boy not really sure how to deal with those particular accessories – so I’m sure the pictures will be highly embaressing. The night was topped off by a trip to the Turkish/Arabic restaurant/club underneath the party (on Atlantic between Hoyt and Douglass). Here everyone was smoking hookahs and clapping away to stereotypically arabic music (played by one guy on three keyboards) as the belly dancer did her belly dancing thing. Occaisionally the entire room would be filled with dancing or the throwing of dollar bills. The school disco style lights added to the sense of fun. It truely has to be seen to be believed and everyone had a great time. I also managed to surprise an Arabic hen party who accosted me saying “You’re scared of a bit of Arabic, eh” to which I responded with my one Arabic phrase – “shukran”. I wandered away from the surprised faces wondering if that really did mean “thank you” and not something more rude..

Last night was a bit more subdued. Went to the cinema and saw Almost Famous which was great fun and highly recommended. I sense this may be the beginning of more regular forays into the world of mainstream cinema as almost every trailer (there were about ten) seemed to offer an excellent film – many with the opportunity to see more of Sandra Bullock.

Another thrill packed week draws merrily to a close. The Yankees are winning the World Championship – named because Canada also plays not simply because America thinks it alone is the world. Emotions are running high and for some reason my subway was unusually packed this morning. But it’s Friday and the weekend beckons so who cares.