Month: February 2008

  • Propaganda in everything

    [Comic books published by the New York Fed](http://www.ny.frb.org/publications/result.cfm?comics=1). Clearly the Australian Budget should follow this example.

  • I wondered lonely as a podcast

    [Tour the lakes district with iPod in hand](http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2007/oct/31/travelnews.news?gusrc=rss&feed=networkfront). Interesting idea, but I hope your walking pace matches Wainwright’s.

  • Book Review: Hyperion Cantos

    I just recently re-read an old favourite of mine, the *[Hyperion Cantos](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperion_Cantos)* by Dan Simmons. The *Cantos* is a sequence of four books: * [Hyperion](http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FHyperion-Dan-Simmons%2Fdp%2F0553283685%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1202698881%26sr%3D8-2&tag=exaspercalcul-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325) * [The Fall of Hyperion](http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FFall-Hyperion-Dan-Simmons%2Fdp%2F0553288202%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1202698881%26sr%3D8-3&tag=exaspercalcul-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325) * [Endymion](http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FEndymion-Dan-Simmons%2Fdp%2F0553572946%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1202698881%26sr%3D8-4&tag=exaspercalcul-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=932) * [The Rise of Endymion](http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FRise-Endymion-Dan-Simmons%2Fdp%2F0553572989%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26qid%3D1202698881%26sr%3D8-5&tag=exaspercalcul-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325) These were well received novels when they first came out – the first won the Hugo award, and…

  • Convergence

    [A picture frame with a Wi-Fi receiver and its own email address](http://gizmodo.com/336220/lightning-round-estarling-picture-frame-hits-a-home-run-on-third-attempt). I think the killer app here is grandparents – just set one of these up in their home, and send through the pictures as you take them.

  • More from America

    [An in-car sandwich maker](http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/12/11/road-pro-incar-sandw.html). I suspect the people trying to write a parody of consumer society 40 years ago would have looked at this as a step too far.

  • For the love of the game

    [The Caltech basketball team, winless for 21 years](http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-28-335/Nerd-Squad–The-Tale-of-Quantum-Hoops.html). The documentary, *Quantum Hoops*, sounds great. This is the kind of thing that restores my faith in sport, which the Olympics will surely challenge later this year…

  • The importance of business plans

    Or the lack thereof… In 1994 Linda Katx started a joke website that pretended to sell tumbleweeds. [People didn’t get the joke, and she now makes $40,000 a year selling them](http://potw.news.yahoo.com/s/potw/55334/rolling-in-cash).

  • Unintended consequences: A continuing series

    [A Japanese arcade game has led to a rise in illegal beetle imports](http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/09/12/japanese-arcade-game.html). Of course, this could be a case of ‘Japan is weird’ instead…

  • Time Management

    I haven’t had a very clean period on the blog since the start of the year – sorry everything’s been erratic. Initially I was going to plead ‘not enough time’, but that’s not really true. It’s really about time management. And a lack of proper capital use. In particular, it’s about a very silly bit…

  • Camping trip computer

    [3kg Linux computer with solar panel](http://www.aleutia.com/products/e1specs.html). Still a little heavy, but the perfect way to blog from the highest mountains. Assuming you can get an Internet connection, of course.