Poundbury

I’ve never been; it’s a long way to go for an hour of driving around.

However, these comments remind me of how I felt in the developments near Disneyland Paris.

“What can I say, it’s a true horror story. A mish mash of styles from different centuries, all added together. It’s a toy town, a museum of a mythical past. There is no soul, no heart, a perfect example of the need for difference, for organic spaces created over time. Constructed squares and public spaces lay empty devoid of the community spirit that was planned. Residents live in quaint and chocolate box ideas of beauty but nothing to do with real design and need. Cars are hidden away, gravel paths replace tarmac. I was waiting to see the film crew around the corner, to see the facade pulled away from this truly ugly and dispiriting space. It’s an over sanitised middle class ghetto that stinks of narrow minded people, it’s a sad simulacra.”

www.asvisual.co.uk: Poundbury

Two Mideast States Say They Will Block BlackBerry

A couple of years ago Skype didn’t work in the UAE, then suddenly it did.

Two Mideast States Say They Will Block BlackBerry – NYTimes.com

Does this have an impact on people travelling there on business?

iPhone 4 Antennagate is a US problem…

I’ve been trying all holiday to reproduce the antenna problem. Whenever I get 30 seconds I pull out the phone and hold it as described.

I’ve not seen a bar drop once.

“The paper suggested poor mobile networks may be the cause of the US reports of iPhone 4 antenna problems. It cited Amobil, a Norwegian mobile phone news site, as having ‘tested the iPhone 4 thoroughly, without finding any evidence that it is improperly constructed. All modern mobile phones have integrated antennas, and it is normal that they are affected by how the phone is held,’ VG said.”

AppleInsider | Norway’s largest paper: iPhone 4 Antennagate is a US problem

I’m now bored with what seems to me to be an issue with AT&T.

The Emperor’s New Antenna

There has been far too much written about Apple and the iPhone 4; however this is the one article that’s worth reading.

“Every recent consumer electronics product from Apple—definitely the iPad, but all iterations of the iPhone including the initial one—has been greeted with rounds of articles crowing about what an arrogant, foolhardy mistake it is and how this will finally, finally, be the moment the emperor is revealed to have no clothes. And ultimately this is what’s so infuriating about Apple: that’s not what happens. Ever. The critics are eternally playing the part of Charlie Brown trying to kick the football, and Steve Jobs always yanks it away at the last second. Nobody talks about making a “Nexus One killer” or an “HP Slate killer” or a “Zune killer”; Apple’s consumer electronics products become the reference points for their fields. The Mac isn’t an exception here, either. While it’s by no means a market leader, Windows became far more Mac-like over the years than the Mac became Windows-like.”

The Emperor’s New Antenna.

Ayrton Senna

At the age of twelve or thirteen I wrote letters to my grand-father every couple of months. I never wrote enough and I regret it but…

The main subject of discussion was Ayrton Senna. I always talked about the fashionable driver of the day. My grandfather was unchanging in his admiration for Senna.

As with almost everything, he was right and I was wrong. Top Gear reminded me of the fact. He would have enjoyed this week’s tribute. As an aside, he’d hate what Top Gear has become.

Cars, driving, Jeremy Clarkson, James May, Richard Hammond – BBC Top Gear.

I remember watching the Monaco Grad Prix in disbelief. One handed Senna rewrote the book.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/50853/ayrton_senna_qualifying_monaco_91/

Lesson 1 – Its about profit not market share…

With 3% market share Apple now makes the majority of profits in the mobile space.

You Can’t Appreciate How Completely Apple Has Humiliated The Cellphone Industry Until You See These Charts

Executives at Nokia should cry themselves to sleep every night.

I wonder how much profit Vertu makes? They cost a packet I can’t see the value.

http://www.vertu.com/in-en/#in-en_

Revenue by product…

CHART OF THE DAY: The iPad Is Already Bigger Than The iPod — And Half As Big As The Mac.

It’s a really impressive graph, all the products either maintain or grow revenues.

Compare it with this…

http://blog.fosketts.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/chart-of-the-day-msft-operating-profit.gif

Note: the Microsoft one is profits and Apple revenues. But you get the idea.

“no attempt to check accuracy”…

When you have to apologize like this…

The Media Blog: Daily Star forced to admit it “made no attempt to check accuracy” of Raoul Moat story, pays damages

…you should probably just give up calling yourself a journalist.

Redesigning the Boarding Pass…

Redesigning the Boarding Pass – Journal – Boarding Pass / Fail

Every single suggestion is better than the original. The original is the only one that someone was paid to design!

I’m willing to bet that the original design was either “evolved” from an original engineering prototype or approved by committee.

Random thoughts…