Caught this last night (available on on iPlayer). Still very funny in that gentle way.

JS takes on eBay in pursuit of a toaster with advanced features (it has an inbuilt crum tray AND variable browning).

BBC – BBC Radio 4 Programmes – The Shuttleworths.

Now Panic and Freak Out

I liked the “Keep Calm and Carry On” WW2 poster (I even have a T-shirt) however perhaps this “Now Panic and Freak Out” remix is more appropriate for our times.

Not sure when it originated.. perhaps up to a year ago basd on some quick googling.

This blog (from last year) collects a bunch of them.

It was 12 years ago and what a great day we had…. the online photos were from our first digital camera (a Fuji) – many taken by our friend Minos.

Wedding Day 1998

As covered widely in the press & on the web – today is the anniversary of the peak of the NASDAQ tech stocks.

“On 10 March 2000, the Nasdaq index of leading technology shares spiked, bursting the Dotcom bubble.”

I was in my tenth year at Oracle at the time – though would leave in the Summer and join in with a badly/unluckily timed yet prescient start up intended to digitally distribute classical music. Searching for funding for an Internet venture in Q2 of 2000 turned out to be not a good plan!(Of course I blame the likes of pets.com and boo.com and the fools who gave them millions to burn with no sound business plan).

Those late nineties boom years were great fun though.. with much of the promise being fulfilled within a decade or so.

I have fond memories of touting an (ahem) N|C (network computer) around Europe… another idea before its time (and of course fatally flawed in execution). But we see the promise of “thin client computing” fulfilled in today’s IT via various technologies (netbooks, smartphones, tablets, “cloud computing”, virtual desktops etc.). Larry’s vision was good – the timing and execution questionable.

The other main technology I was associated with at that time was “Video on Demand”. Fifteen years on from the excitement of the early trials (with BT in the UK) streamed high quality (OK,  decent-ish quality) video is normal today (BC iPlayer Youtube et al).

Some of my friends and colleagues from those days are still at Oracle – some (unbelievably!) having served 20+ years there.

So where were you and what memories do you have?

BBC News – Dotcom bubble burst: 10 years on.

WIRED: March 10, 2000: Pop Goes the Nasdaq!

networkworld: Time Flies Dept.: Dot-com craze peaked 10 years ago

Thanks for the greetings people… and can it really be 5 years since my 40th.

Petrols play at my 40th birthday

We had a great party with some great live music.. including for of The Petrols playing together. Here’s some photos from that party – weren’t we young!

This year after breakfast at Granny pam’s we’re off to see Ponyo with Charlie (now a Miyazki fan after watching My Neighbor Totoro and Porco Rosso on TV recently).

Looking geek chic, Computer Engineer Barbie® wears a t-shirt featuring binary code and computer/keyboard icon along with a pair of black knit skinny pants. Computer Engineer carries a Barbie® smart phone, fashionable laptop case, flat watch and Bluetooth earpiece. With stylish pink-frame glasses and a shiny laptop, she is ready to conquer the day’s tasks on the go or from her desk.

via Computer Engineer Barbie coming soon to a toy store near you • The Register.

Lovely – real fans will spot all the references:

CAPE CANAVERAL, FL—NASA officials announced today the successful launch of the new shuttle Moonage Daydream, marking the beginning of a long-anticipated two-week conceptual mission inspired by British rock star David Bowie.

From The Onion

Funny – via Martin Kelner’s Guardian column:

[set on a british inter-city train] a passenger gets a cappuccino, a cheese and tomato sandwich, a packet of crisps and a Kit Kat and hands over payment, saying: ”I’m sorry, I’ve only got a twenty-pound note.”

The buffet car steward replies: “Well, you’d better put the Kit Kat back then.”

The column also discusses ESPN’s “Free View Weekend”. I watched (some of) their coverage of the Milan Derby. An eventful and quite interesting game. I don’t understand why anyone would want to PAY FOR a subscription though… especially when they subject you to long (4+ minutes?) of ads in the breaks. Pay a subscription and still get bombarded with (stupid!) adverts – How is that supposed to appeal?

The Professor

Don’t forget Eno Night on BBC Four this evening (then repeats – MythTV box primed and ready!)

I’m excited to finally see (missed it on TV last year) the film of the Apollo missions that the very wonderful Apollo soundtrack was made for. (See Guardian mini-interview from last year).

Also – last week’s Observer had some extracts form Paul Morley’s interview (for the TV) with Eno – I particulalry liked this quote:

“I think records were just a little bubble through time and those who made a living from them for a while were lucky. There is no reason why anyone should have made so much money from selling records except that everything was right for this period of time. I always knew it would run out sooner or later. It couldn’t last, and now it’s running out. I don’t particularly care that it is and like the way things are going. The record age was just a blip. It was a bit like if you had a source of whale blubber in the 1840s and it could be used as fuel. Before gas came along, if you traded in whale blubber, you were the richest man on Earth. Then gas came along and you’d be stuck with your whale blubber. Sorry mate – history’s moving along. Recorded music equals whale blubber. Eventually, something else will replace it.”

Similar to Bowie’s “music like water” quote from 2002

”Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity,” he added. ”So it’s like, just take advantage of these last few years because none of this is ever going to happen again. You’d better be prepared for doing a lot of touring because that’s really the only unique situation that’s going to be left. It’s terribly exciting. But on the other hand it doesn’t matter if you think it’s exciting or not; it’s what’s going to happen.”

Link to Eno Night schedule info

1. 21:00–22:00
   Arena
   Brian Eno – Another Green World

   A profile of Brian Eno, former Roxy Music keyboardist and a pioneer in ambient music.
2. 22:00–23:00
   Brian Eno: Hits, Classics and Tracks

   Paul Morley talks about some of Brian Eno’s hit tracks, including Heroes and Viva La Vida.
3. 23:00–23:55
   The Roxy Music Story

   Profile of the glam band Roxy Music, who reformed after 25 years to make a new album. (R)
4. 23:55–01:10
   For All Mankind

   1989 documentary relating the story of the 24 men who travelled to the moon with NASA. (R)

Great commentary and collection of links on the recent news on Google vs. China.

Bruce Schneier is well respected in computer and real world security – always worth a read.

Schneier on Security: Google vs. China.