Mu Mu!

One for you John? Bill Drummond on the death (he hopes) of recorded music from Radio 3's 'Free Thinking Festival'. I heard this on the weekly Radio 3 Arts and Ideas podcast, which often has interesting stuff on it, despite the annoying presence of Philip Dodd. 

I increasingly find I don't care one way or the other what happens to recorded music - despite devoting about 15 years of my life to being absolutely obsessed with it. What a waste of time - I could have been doing something useful instead.

What is Stephen Harper reading?

Cats aside, this is the best website I've seen for a while - brilliant stuff from the writer Yann Martel

Apropos the below

The latest environmental disaster - Google

Sorry guys, to do the first global warming horror story of 2009, but this was a bit alarming. It seems that Google searches use up an incredible amount of energy. Like pretty much everything we do in the modern world.

This is probably as retrograde as anything in terms of cool

But I'm quite liking lolcats. It's related to the failblog thing and is (ummm) lots of pictures of cats with funny
captions. They've evolved their own lolcat-speak...





I've also spent yesterday evening playing with Windows 7 on a tablet PC. It's not bad (see below)...

Productivity plummets

The office has discovered Fail Blog.

Atheist Advertising

I like the look of this campaign. I agree with the sentiment of course, but also the quite cheery tone of it. The UK's high-profile public atheists (Dawkins, Hitchens) can be a bit of a turn-off with their truculence and aggressive materialism. I think this is a bit more gentle and positive.

Best of the Fitz 2008

Another year over. Much has happened, both good and bad, but frankly it's not been a vintage year for our blog. In 2004 we had an astonishing 302 posts - in 2008 it was down to just 30. Has Facebook killed the Fitz? Or have we all got better things to do - if so, I'd like to know what. Anyway, there was still plenty of good stuff and, for the record, here are my personal favourites in no particular order:

1) Rainy Edinburgh Morning from the No. 30 Bus

2)Christian the Lion

3)The Best Documentary Ever Made

4)The Drugs Don't Work

5)Happy pi Day

The Mouse hits 40

Interesting that the Mouse is now 40. I don't think I saw one until the early 1990s, which shows I guess how long even the most brilliant of inventions can take to be widely adopted.

If a thing's worth doing...

...it's worth overdoing. I bring you Edinburgh by Camera Phone, the blog.

Rainy Edinburgh morning from the No. 30 bus

From Fitzrovian Tuesdays

Playing around with Picasa web albums in accordance with my adoption of all things google. There's no "blog this" option, oddly...

Google Artist Themes

These are really good. I'm moving over to Google for all my internet "stuff" as my Yahoo account is overflowing with junk and Google are now completely winning on style...

On the McCain campaign trail..

Ok, I promise this will be my only post on the subject of the US election. I haven't got anything to add really other than what we've known since 2000 - that half the American electorate are completely bonkers. This piece on the sober, highly conventional CNN website it home to me once again. It seems that as crazy as Mccain is, many of his supporters are another couple of steps even further removed from reality.

Iain Banks on climate change

I was a bit surprised when I read Iain Banks's book on whisky to discover that he's a complete petrol-head, with a string of sports cars, land rovers etc. The book was more about cars than whisky.

However, he's now got rid of them all for environmental reasons and owns a solitary Toyota Yaris instead. Here's a short  interview he's done with Friends of the Earth.

If only there were more like him and fewer Clarksons.

Although I do sometimes regret that by the time I was old enough and earned enough to think about being into cars, the environmental evidence discouraged me from doing so.

The dark side of David Foster Wallace

Sad to hear that David Foster Wallace has commited suicide. I have to admit I never made it to the end of Infinite Jest, but I did enjoy a book of his essays that I once read.

The Rorschach Test

This actually looks like it might be quite good: http://watchmenmovie.warnerbros.com/

Visually faithful to the graphic novel, anyway.

Hammershoi

On at the Royal Academy. It's only till 7 Sep though so I don't imagine I'll make it down, which is a shame as I'd really like to see this. And the Hadrian one.

The Best Documentary Ever Made

YouTube is amazing - I'm so glad I've found this documentary about a Japanese professor trying to track down Einstein's Brain. Apparently they removed it in Princeton medical school during his autopsy, and kept it for research - but it went missing when the guy in charge of the project moved on. The Japanese prof just keeps approaching random hospital staff (or doctors with the same name who he's found in the phone book) and saying 'I rooking for Einstein brain', to their complete bafflement.

For years I've had a hazy memory of it, but it seemed so bizarre that I wondered whether I'd dreamed it or imagined it or something. Now I know that the doc exists as I remember it - although whether it's genuine, or a clever pastiche, or a profound art film, I'm still not certain. (Sketchy details on IMDB.)

Where it gets questionable is when he tracks down the guy who did the research to some town in Kansas, but doesn't know where he lives. He asks a local resident if he knows where to find him - and it turns out to be William Burroughs (see part 5 - 2:45)! Then when he does find the old researcher, he has the brain in a jar - and cuts him a slice on his chopping board to take home. You have to take a look.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6
Conclusion

Christian the Lion

Must admit to being delighted by the latest Youtube hit. It IS genuine, isn't it?

13 in a Volvo

Don't mean to racially stereotype, but no surprise to me that this chap seems to be an orthodox Jew from Tottenham. I've seen plenty such huge families crammed into Volvos around Stamford Hill. Although what was he doing in Wales?

Leaving New York

What a song, and what a video. Manhattan Island almost as much a spiritual home as Fitzrovia and Kinross Services I think.

How it feels to have a stroke

If I didn't have Gin, I wouldn't really have a life

What credit crunch?

City bankers receive £13bn bonuses this year - only1% down on last year.  Why I oughtta... [waves clenched fist in the air impotently]

The best way to find meaning at work? Don't look for it

Some sensible points here, although it does conclude by saying you're lucky to have a job in the current climate and that should be enough - which isn't that encouraging.

Cheney's Toy

*Bit* of a good track, was on Radio 2 earlier this evening. Never heard of James McMurtry before, initially thought it might have been Lou Reed singing.

Global Recession - what do we think?

Are we heading for a global economic slump? Are any of us worried about it if we are? The Ecologist magazine is claiming that we need one to save the planet. Whatever we think about the subject, paul Krugman's columns are quite enlightening..

Bigger Trees near Warter donated to the Tate Britain

Fantastic, I love this painting. The Yorkshire landscape abides (to misquote the Dude).

Eskimo Disco

This is on the official Pingu website. I particularly like the Emo penguins...

Happy Pi Day

Or Pi approximation day. March 14 you see, 3.14... Although July 22 is also Pi day (22/7 = 3.14...). You're supposed to eat pies. I like it.

No great surprise that the guy who thought it up looks like this, though:

Was listening to Radio 2 in the car this evening

Marc Radcliffe and Steve Lamac - it was bloody brilliant.

The drugs don't work

All across the news today that Prozac and some other SSRI's aren't any better than a placebo - I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts on this.

My experiences with these things haven't been particularly good - a feeling of speediness for the first few days followed by same old same old only with increased mental muzziness and anxiety. I *really* didn't like Prozac...

Ideas worth spreading

According to the Daily Torygraph business section , which I found on the tube today, the TED conference is like 'a creative Davos on steroids'. Whether or not that's a good thing is debatable, but you can watch videos of presentations by lots of clever people on it's website. In a similar vein, Google also hosts internal seminars by boffins and gurus and hosts films of their presentations online. In keeping with my normal Fitz posting habits, I haven't actually tried to watch any of these yet, but I'm sure there's some interesting stuff in there. Although it could all be a bit Wired magazine - you know, we're going to solve all the world's problems with nifty technological solutions and get rich in the process, but in a good way.

On a completely unrelated tangent (although I'm sure Wired will appear on here at some point), I happened across this questionable blog while googling stuff about fixed wheel bikes. Not entirely sure where it's coming from - it seems to have satirical intent, but it's not entirely clear who's satirising whom. But some of the entries are pretty funny, although a lot of the commenters don't seem to be in on the joke.

Gazza

Poor old Gazza, another low. Self-medicating all the way.

Hopefully this time he'll get some decent help and somehow turn things around.

WTF

Pleas for condemned Saudi 'witch'

Turnabout

pliny the elder

Have been reading selected extracts from Natural History by pliny the elder, as part of an attempt this year to read the classics. It's actually well worth looking at - a fascinating and often quite charming mixture of well-grounded and factually informative observations described with typical Roman rationalism and confidence (for instance, there is a section which mocks the credulity of the Greeks for believing in werewolves) coupled with the most ludicrous accounts of unicorns, giant sea monsters, talking horses and much else besides.

Cityphilia

As ever, a great article by John Lanchester in the LRB. I never really understood how things like derivatives and hedge funds worked until I read this.

In fact, I didn't wholly appreciate how banks worked either:

"Imagine a country with only one bank. A customer goes into the bank and deposits £200. Now the bank has £200 to invest, so it goes out and buys some shares with the money: not the full £200, but the amount minus the percentage which it deems prudent to keep in cash, just in case any depositors come and make a withdrawal. That amount, called the 'cash ratio', is set by government: in this example let's say it's 20 per cent. So our bank goes out and buys £160 of shares from, say, LRB Ltd. Then LRB goes and deposits its £160 in the bank; the bank now has £360 of deposits, of which it needs to keep only 20 per cent – £72 – in cash. So now it can go out and buy another £128 of shares in LRB, raising its total holding in LRB Ltd to £288. Once again, LRB Ltd goes and deposits the money in the bank, which goes out again and buys more shares, and so on the process goes. The only thing imposing a limit is the need to keep 20 per cent in cash, so the depositing-and-buying cycle ends when the bank has £200 in cash – all the cash there is – and £800 in LRB shares; it also has £1000 of customer deposits, the initial £200 plus all the money from the share transactions. The initial £200 has generated a balance sheet of £1000 in assets and £1000 in liabilities. Magic! In real life, it's even better: the UK cash ratio is 0.15 per cent, so that initial £200 would generate £133,333 on both sides of the balance sheet."

Letter from God

Best of the Fitz 2007

It's been a relatively quiet year for the Fitz, though we did of course manage a get-together back in June. Also, some good innovations in terms of the sidebar have helped keep it as dynamic ever. In no particular order, here is my traditional pick of the year's postings:


How Things Change

Finding Someone


Fitz Redux

Buckie Gift pack

Northern pilgrimage

And yet more telly

David Cameron's Incredible Journey. What a spiv.

More telly

Is anyone watching deadliest catch? It's completely brilliant.

Space Needle Webcam

Our office in Seattle has gone completely offline (can't even phone them) - have therefore been looking at the Space Needle webcam to see if there is any extreme weather happenning over there or suchlike.

All looks OK but looking down on downtown Seattle it occurs to me what a fantastic place it must be in the run up to Xmas - great shops and coffee bars, Frasier like ambience etc etc. Aaah...

TV tonight

This looks really good.

L.A.S.E.R. Tag

And while I'm doing videos, here's one that should appeal to the artist in you all ;)



http://graffitiresearchlab.com/?page_id=76#video

Liquid Rescale Images

I found this really cool new style of image rescaling. Have a look at the video to see what it's about. Also, there's a GIMP plugin to do this, so you can try it out on your own photos! Website is http://liquidrescale.wikidot.com/en:examples

Arrgh Arrgh Arrgh

Man-sized sea scorpion claw found

Conchords

Has anyone been watching the Flight of the Conchords on BBC4? I didn't much like the look of it at first, but it's now my favourite show. They have a nice line in underplayed, self-deprecating humour - see this little medley of jokes at the expense of New Zealand.



It's all quite gentle too - a nice break from cynicism. (Tuesdays, 9.30pm.)

Northern Pilgrimage

We're on holiday in Avimore at the moment. On the way up we stopped off at a place that I know has been of great importance to some of us in our individual spiritual journeys.

Jimmy Eat World - Hear You Me

Oh right - really good songs are still being written.

Timothy and Rafe Spall Vs Denholm Eliot and Julian Sands

Not sure how I feel about this.

The Most Beautiful Planetary Maps Ever

These maps, featured in a Wired News story, are cool - they look like abstract designs, or some kind of fractal/yellow submarine hybrid, but actually show things like the geological composition of the dark side of the moon.

Inspirational blog

This blog is the best thing I've read all year, I think. I've been reading the archives in chronological order. First blog to make me cry at any rate.

How is Granpaw Broon still alive?

If he's been eating this stuff all his life? And smoking that pipe...

Happiness doesn't cost the earth

The most happy European countries have smaller carbon footprints, according to NEF. Although we don't all have Iceland's geo-thermal resources, there's probably something in this.

Free Rice

An interesting site: improve your vocabulary and donate to charity at the same time! A bit addictive too.

www.freerice.com

Yaah

Seems Feels like only yesterday the that this CGI was cutting edge...

Bring on the Bears

I often find myself wishing that bears were brought back to the UK. Everytime they turn up on US news bulletins, they are invariably doing something brilliant.

Least appropriate fun run costumes

Watching the Great North Run on telly a moment ago, I wondered what the least appropriate novelty fun run costume would be. I reckon 'suicide bomber' - that would make everyone run faster.

(I've just posted this by email, by the way. Didn't know you could do that - it's an option in the Blogger settings.)

Telecom Rehab

I wholeheartedly agree with this - bring back the days of phantom meetings and time killed on park benches of an afternoon. The expectation of immediate response to all communications is a tyranny that creates stress and anxiety in the modern worker. People used to communicate by letter and the world seemed to function ok.

I Know What I Know

Might as well keep posting this evening's musical oddessy. Music was definitely better in the 80s.

Boy in the Bubble

Last one. Prophetic, as the one of the YouTube commentators notes.

In Your Eyes

Actually Peter Gabriel is way better than Phil and Co of the same era



Will now stop posting youtube videos (for this evening anyway) as QI is about to start.

Invisible Touch

Another storming track from back in the day. Phil Collins pretending that his drumsticks are a microphone is bloody annoying even 20 years later. Some part of me still reckons 1980s grey flecked suits are dead cool though, couple of beauts on show here.

Dark Ages

Not as polished as the (later) album version but this ROCKS from 4:57 in. Also check the lyrics. Awesome.

Buckie Gift Pack

Apparently spotted in a Glasgow Haddows: bottle of Buckfast, 20 Mayfair and some skins.

Scots rank second in world for obesity

Obesity levels in Scotland are the second highest in the developed world behind the US, statistics have revealed.

Come on Scots! Let's beat the Yanks and be number 1! Double pie suppers all round...

My Desk...

DSC00006
Originally uploaded by johnmain.

Relaxing, creative workspace you betcha!

Writer's Rooms

I find things like this strangely fascinating - particularly when you see how makeshift and uncomfortable some of their set ups are. There was a good programme on Radio 4 about this once too, although I can't remember who any of the anecdotes were about - people who could only write standing up, or by dictating perfectly formed sentences to a scribe and so on. The collected Paris Review interviews are also good on this stuff.

Manilow - what a star

Really! Is it just me or is he turning into Julian Clary btw?

Facebook in the Flesh

"Jean Baudrillard, as any philosophy student will tell you, theorized that, in the postmodern world, “the territory no longer precedes the map.” In other words, if you are a member of N.Y.U.’s class of 2011, you probably arrived in New York City with a pre-existing web of soon-to-be college friends from Facebook..."

Scotland 1 - 0 France

Blimey - what were the chances of that happening? Can we possibly keep it up and actually qualify for a tournament? (I'm suspending my self-imposed avoidance of football for one evening only.)

Kill the Gun

Check out this brilliant commercia.l If only commercials directors were getting this kinds of commissions more often the tired cliche that "advertising is art" would have a bit more going for it.

Hallam Foe

Saw Hallam Foe last night - really good.

Comic Life

http://plasq.com/comiclife/

Alan Turing Chess Program

I was told a really interesting story toward the end of last week - not sure if you guys are aware of it. Apparently in 1948-50 Turing wrote the first ever computer chess program, even though there weren't any computers in existence that could actually run it. Lacking a computer, Turing had to run the program manually, logically following the procedural steps to play chess (and taking about half an hour to make each move).

The coolest thing of all is the name he gave to his program without a computer... "Turbo Champ."

Vantage Point

I went to see a band called Vantage Point on Sunday - a guy from work's the drummer. Not my usual kind of thing but totally enjoyed it. The audience were great too - interesting how aggressive, heavy thrash metal attracts really nice people, while casuals etc tend to go for lovey dovey dance music.

My dog's got two noses...

How does it smell?

Er, pretty well actually.

(Can this be real?)

My wife's gone to the West Indies...

More Mindfulness

Here's a link to Mindfulness in Plain English - really worthwhile I think.

Facebook

Is anyone else participating in this madness?

No sun link to climate change

(I can't seem to edit the "Title" field in Mozilla btw - Tom did you have this problem?)

There seem to be a lot of people about who have bought the cosmic ray hypothesis re climate warming - thought it might be worth linking to this BBC news item (which I'm going to email to my brother in law).

I saw Clerks II earlier this evening. Doesn't have the freshness of the original, and is very uneven in tone with a disappointingly soppy, and deeply unconvincing, romantic plot line. However, the characters are all there and the climatic scene with the donkey is spectacular - genuinely laughout loud funny.

George Melly dies

:-(

Mindfulness

Mindfulness, to put it as plainly as possible, is the ability to observe one's own internal sensations with the calm clarity of an external witness. It has been described by the great Buddhist monk Nyanaponika as "the clear and single-minded awareness of what actually happens to us and in us, at the successive moments of perception."

I came across the concept and practice of mindfulness when I first started trying to actively manage my Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) about 3 years ago. In his book Brain Lock Jeffrey Schwarz advocates using mindfulness as part of his 4 step approach to managing the condition, basically through being mindfully aware of distressing thoughts as they arise and working around them rather than trying to argue with them or push them away (which - owing to the mechanism of OCD - makes them more likely to recur).

As well as being a useful technique for managing a troublesome psychiatric disorder, it turns out mindfulness is a central tenet of buddhism. By paying non judgemental bare attention to one's internal states one is able to observe things as they really are rather than continually reacting to thoughts, feelings and emotions. Two quotes from the Buddha:

"Mindfulness, I declare, is all-helpful"
"All things can be mastered by mindfulness"

Mindfulness can be cultivated by regularly meditating - most commonly by focusing on observing one's breathing. There are quite a few guided meditation mp3s out there on the internet - the introductions and lead throughs by Kamalashila linked to here are pretty good, I think. I try and do a 15 or 20 minute meditation on most days and certainly find it beneficial.

"May all beings be happy" :-)

Fitz Redux

Good to revive the Fitz nights yesterday, even if it was a Thursday. From what I can remember, the following topics needed follow up: Semi-identical twins; huge ligers (are they sterile?) and pizzly bears; mindfulness, meditation, depressive realists and forms of OCD; the tribulations of middle-managers; the share of London businesses that account for half of employment. What have I missed?

Also, something I meant to mention and didn't get around to - the German super baby. This is a kid with a gene mutation that makes him super-strong but otherwise healthy. You could view it as an interesting example of evolution at work - a random mutation produces a version of the species that would have been more likely to survive and pass on his genes (in cave man days at least, providing he doesn't need to eat twice as much food or anything).

Fitzrovian Thursday

Hallo chaps. I'm going to be in London on Thursday from lunchtime'ish to mid evening - anyone interested in meeting up? Planning on visiting a couple of art galleries in the afternoon before maybe repairing to Charlotte Street...

Size Matters

An interesting look at the Earth relative to other astronomical objects. It's a small world after all!

Take the AQ test

This is interesting.

Ubuntu

Has anyone tried using Ubuntu ? We've got a couple of old (4-5 yrs) laptops at work that are a bit knackered, and I was wondering whether they might run a bit better on Ubuntu than Windows (2000 in their case)? Providing they meet necessary system requirements. John? Seumas?

Finding Someone

Wednesday
On Wednesday I found a notepad - black cover, maybe A6 size pages - lying on the pavement, near Old Street station. I picked it up and looked around for anyone that might be searching for something they'd dropped. No sign of such a person. I continued to my bus stop at which a 55 bus miraculously appeared immediately. I got on and had a quick look through the pad. It had a scrawled letter, written in red ink and the page torn in two, shoved between its pages.

The letter, scored with crossed out lines and added comments, seemed the least likely avenue for finding the owner, so I put that to one side and opened up the notepad itself. The inside cover simply said "March" with the first page looking something like a diary entry. Skipping to the back revealed some more writing, again which looked like a diary entry. There didn't seem to be any contact details; no names, phone numbers, email...I felt really uncomfortable at this point: I don't want to read someone's private writings (or, more honestly, I kind of want to but would feel guilty about it!)

Anyway, off the bus and time to wander and wonder as I made my way down the street to a convenient pub, halfway between the bus stop and my Room With A View. Now, reasoning:

• If I don't read this diary I'll never be able to find out who it belongs to so I might as well bin it and they'd never know or care if I'd read it or not and they'll never get it back
• If I do read it, I may be able to track the owner, or at least find out if it's worth it, and there's no need to feel guilty because it was necessary and they'll get back their valued writing

Result! I get to do what I want and it's the right thing to do!

So I read it. Of course, I'm not going to tell you what it said, even if I could remember it that precisely. She, and somehow I knew it was "she" before the first direct reference, is an artist. And the entries are various musings on the state of being an artist, what is important, what is irrelevant, what influences the way you perceive and think and feel. There are thoughts on her cultural background, being Bangladeshi, and her social background. On connections and relationships and paths in life. All scribbled on the pages of this little black book.

I find it strangely fascinating, like things I've read, but not quite, and not a novel: no pretence at professional writing, but all the more powerful for that. It seems to me like an odd mix between the second half of "The Collector" (John Fowles) and "My Name is Asher Lev" (Chaim Potok). And always this awareness that this wasn't written for my entertainment but as a personal journal. That my purpose is simply to find out who this belonged to, not to find it interesting. All I've found so far, identity-wise, is that the letter, rewritten in the notepad, is to "G*" and that she studies at M* College of Art. Maybe I can look up the list of lecturers and find one called G* who has a Bangladeshi student who's written him a letter. It's kind of an angry letter though and what if she hasn't actually sent it? Will it get her in trouble? Enough thinking! Do this tomorrow! The pub closes and I stagger home to bed.

Thursday
I head blearily in to work. I get the notepad out and look at it again. No inspiration. I look once more at the letter. Wait, how did I miss that?! The letter is signed "S*"! So I now have a first name; this should be easy. I go to the M* college website and do a search for S*. Nothing. Even G* doesn't give me much useful information. I'm used to this though: our own website search is useless so I tend to just search it using Google. I google for "S* Bangladeshi" and the first hit is an artist's website...an artist called S* who studies at M*! That's got to be her!

Email: "Have you lost a notepad near Old St? Last entry was a letter to someone called G*"
Reply: "That's me! Thank you!"

...and we arrange to meet at Starbucks. I have lunch at Old Street during which I get a text saying she's arrived. I go to meet her. Walk in the door and I'm not sure if she's there. There's a girl by the window who looks maybe Bangladeshi but prettier than the website picture and seems younger. I'm not sure. I call her mobile. Sure enough, she picks up her phone so I hang up and wander over.

"S*?"
"Yes."
"Ah, then this belongs to you..."

...and present the notepad. Absurdly, I feel reluctant to let it go. My mini-adventure is over. I explain a little of how I found it, that I read it, how I looked up her name. And then I leave. I don't have a coffee.

Of course I did want to stay and talk and discuss things with her, but I didn't. And the reason why not? Well:

• [complete lie reason]: I had to get back to work (hah! like anyone would believe that!)
• [partial lie; partially honest reason]: I couldn't think of a way of saying, "Hey, I just read your private diary! Would you like to chat about it?!" that didn't sound extremely weird and creepy and just fundamentally wrong
• [totally honest reason]: I'm painfully shy with people I don't already know, so I couldn't talk to her. A problem I've had since I was a child. I'm hoping it will go away when I become an adult and all my insecurities and worries disappear, which, when I was younger, I presumed happened sometime in your late twenties. Clearly it must happen sometimes near forty or something as I haven't hit it yet and I'm now thirty-four.

So that's the end of my tale. I've learned a bit more about myself and about other people just from finding something lying in the street. Perhaps there's a moral to this, but I suspect I've really written it because I still feel guilty about reading someone's diary.

So maybe I'll just send S* this link and let her read my side of things...Maybe.

A Man of [the] Culture

One for you John? Iain Banks feature from Hay festival.

I'm sorry, but holy f**king shit...

Gorilla on rampage at Dutch zoo

Lucky it wasn't a tiger I suppose.

Climate change: A guide for the perplexed

The 26 most common climate myths and misconceptions debunked.

Glasgow Urban Model

This is pretty impressive: Glasgow Urban Model. (See also here and here.)

They should turn it into a game - like Doom, but with neds.

Things can only get better... !

Remember that? Hard to believe the '97 election results came in a whole decade ago. How naively optimistic I was.

Three of the original cabinet have died since then - Cook, Dewar and Mowlam. Shame.

I don't get fashion. Who's issuing all the orders? And why does everyone seem so eager to obey?

Charlie Brooker on good form.

How Things Change

Confusing numbers

I came across this Dilbert cartoon the other day, and it reminded me of an essay by Ray Kurzweil called The Law of Accelerating Returns. You may have read this already, in which he talks about The Singularity, when technology will reach the point of advancing too quickly for humans to comprehend it. If you haven't read it, do! It makes some fascinating points.

In the meantime, you may be wondering what possible link there is between The Singularity and the above Dilbert cartoon. Well, one of the main points in that essay was that humans tend to think linearly. We intuitively understand numbers if they grow steadily, whereas exponential growth (like doubling numbers) confuses us.

In this case, Scott Adams has got his sums wrong. Which just goes to show that even an economist can get things wrong sometimes! The trouble is that his numbers look right, whereas the right numbers don't, if you see what I mean. Actually, you can see what I mean: here's a version with the numbers corrected.


Now that's a big number. In fact, at least to me, it looks ridiculously big. But, it's the correct number for 25 different possibilities in every possible combination (actually, "permutation" is the correct word here).

How permutations are calculated (if you know this already, or just can't be bothered with it, just skip to the next section)

The number of different permutations isn't too difficult to work out, at least when the numbers are small enough to be manageable!

Starting with one, if we just have one item (say "A"), then the number of permutations is one: just A.

With two (AB) the number of permutations is two: AB and BA
This is pretty easy so far...

With three (ABC) the number of permutations is six: ABC, BAC...CBA, BCA...ACB, CAB

Ok, this is a little tricker, so let's think about what we've done. For the first two permutations I just stuck the C onto the end of the two AB permutations. Then, for each of the two letters in turn (A and B) I swapped them with C. So when C was swapped with A, ABC became CBA. So, I basically just did the two (AB) permutations three times over (including swaps). 3 x 2 = 6

What happens with the permutations for four items (this can be written as "4!", which is a lot shorter!) Well, we can just add the D to the end of all the previous ones (so that's 1 times 6 permutations) and then swap the D with each of the remaining letters (which is 3 times 6 permutations). In other words, 4! = 4 x 6 = 24

Let's summarise:
1! = 1
2! = 2 x 1 = 2
3! = 3 x 2 x 1 = 6
4! = 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24

So even if you don't get my mangled attempt at an explanation above, I'm sure you can spot the pattern!

Back to Dilbert

Ok, if it's so easy how come Mr Adams got it so completely wrong? Well, as you can see, the numbers early on in this series aren't particularly big. In fact, you'd be forgiven for thinking that I was lying about 25! being so huge! It seems part of a completely different pattern. This is really where our intuitive sense breaks down.

And this is where the relevance to Kurzweil's essay comes in. These odd and dramatic changes don't really matter when it's just an abstract number sequence (Ok, I'm sure it's vitally important for many engineers, but I mean for regular folk!). What happens when we start leaving our technological 3! and 4! with their nice, understandable results and start getting towards our incomprehensible 25! though? This is what the rate of technological advance really means.

But let's have a version that has something closer to a comforting 625. Will 720 do? Here we are:

Still doesn't look right though...

Email Bankruptcy

Quite an appealing idea. I wonder if I could extend it to other areas - work projects, domestic chores etc.

Wireless hijacking under scrutiny

Man charged for using someone else's wi-fi connection. I didn't know that was illegal!

"I am a Mac" revisited