All posts by Richard

The truth…

I maybe odd but hasn’t he just shot himself and his profession here?Every article has to have a single point of view, and in this case it has to fit with the general preconception of the subject! He can’t find”news” as defined as something, he has to print a confirmation of what we already know.And the point of the press is?

“One of the good things about blogs is that they allow you to add nuance. In the news business, there is little space to tell a story. To earn the limited slot you usually have to stick with one angle. That’s a preface for expanding a little on the article we wrote in the newspaper today on France’s embrace of New World methods for selling its wine.The story fits into the classic category of “French tradition surrenders to superior Anglo-Saxon forces”. The enlightened reader smiles at another Gallic retreat in the face of globalisation but feels a twinge of regret that obstinate French excellence is again compromising with the modern world.The reality is a little more complicated.”Charles Bremner – Times Online – WBLG: France fights back with better wine

Will interface matter?

Adobe’s Acrobat.com could be an Office killer; Will interface matter? | Between the Lines | ZDNet.com

Yes, of course it matters but…

What amazes me is how good the interfaces looks compared to Office; this is an online app and it looks lovely to my offline application. I’m used to the online applications looking like Google Docs; basic, blue and boring. This is something very different and, in fact, so good that I’m itching to use it but I don’t want to go through the transition process.

http://www.acrobat.com 

The market doesn’t always work…

As I watch in disbelief from a distance as the facade crumbles I keep on having the same thought whenever I read things like this…

Overlooked in the McCellan coverage (Scripting News)

Maybe the BBC isn’t that bad. At least they (used) take their role in society seriously.

So I think Sarkozy has to be careful what he wishes for.

How much does this conference cost?

“Jeff Bezos talked about Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book; Activision’s Bobby Kotick showed off a videogame; Sony’s Howard Stringer unveiled a television. Barry Diller charmed everyone with his brilliance long enough that they forgot he really hasn’t accomplished what he set out to on the Net. Michael Dell, Jerry Yang, and Jeff Bewkes simply seemed clueless to the realities of their business predicaments. Mark Zuckerberg proved terminally incapable of sharing. Only the last speaker of Wednesday night, Rupert Murdoch, showed any real spark.”

D6 Live Coverage: Why Rupert Murdoch should defrag Bill Gates — and the rest of tech

The corridoor conversations must be good at this conference; otherwise why would you go?

Nokia 6086 on Mac / iSync – Fixed…

“Her indoors” bought a Nokia 6086 over the weekend and we made an almost fatale mistake at the shop. We didn’t check for iSync support on the Mac. And guess what, it’s not supported…argh!

However, I found this, crossed my fingers and tried it.

HowardForums: Your Mobile Phone Community & Resource – Nokia 6086 on Mac / iSync – Fixed

It works perfectly.  Wonderful!

Why have only one…

“If Gates & Co. had ended up snagging Booch, however, I wonder whether Microsoft’s priorities might be considerably different than they are with Ozzie in the CSA role. Might Microsoft be more business-focused than consumer-focused?”

What if Microsoft had picked a different Chief Software Architect? | All about Microsoft | ZDNet.com

What this actually shows is that Microsoft needs more than one Chief Architect; how can one person control everything from the Xbox to Live via the Zune?

Why we carry so much…

I was reading about the joys of finding a socket that fits your plug…

Musing about design and convenience

…when I remembered how stupid we all are. We carry around international plug convertors; why don’t we simply change the sockets. Or even, make the sockets international?

Clever Sockets

Seen in Bangalore, India.