Tom Hume on Future Platforms’ mobile Sudoku: I’m afraid we can take no credit for this, but the commercial model of our version is really revolutionary: 25p a play, with the first game for free. I’ve never seen a mobile game that cheap, and it strikes me as a strong model for attracting casual gamers and players who might be intimidated by a £4.50 charge or unsure about whether this mobile gaming thing is for them. »
For the fourth time in as many years they were confronted with the problem of what birthday present to bring a young man who was incurably deranged in his mind. He had no desires. Man made objects were to him either hives of evil, vibrant with a malignant activity that he alone could perceive, or gross comforts for which no use could be found in his abstract world. After eliminating a number of articles that might offend him or frighten him (anything in the gadget line for instance was taboo), his parents chose a dainty and innocent trifle: a basket with ten little fruit jellies in ten little jars. »
Suspirium puellarum Celadus thraex. This sort of thing was always my favourite at uni. Pretty fab weekend so far I must say. On Friday I popped down into the city for the evening to give Robert and Nat a hand with the sound and stuff at Bright Young Things before taking advantage of Robert’s sofa once more. This trip was also notable for my realisiation that sometimes a taxi is a handy way to get across town, not in every situation, but as an option in the armoury. »
Some very rough notes from OpenTech. There was really only one panel I took proper notes on, the rest were better spent actually listening. ———- promise.tv Increasing hard drive densities bring us this awesome PVR-a-like thing from BBC R&D that simply stores the entire multiplex for the past week, not individual programs. Really nice paradigm shift as to what you should expect from timeshifting. One to watch. Probably the most impressive thing I saw. »
In which the word ‘good’ is used more often than is strictly healthy. I’m morbidly fascinated by the possibility of doing a frequency analysis on the thousands of words of old posts I’ve written on here to unearth my most annoying and cliched ticks. And then I think two things. Who cares? And that I can do without the pain of seeing my worst side any more than I do at the moment. »
This is a mildly incoherent ramble about identification, humanity and the important need to stay within the metaphor in software design, I think. I was just asked this in an online questionnaire by Salon.com: Which of the following ethnic groups do you most closely identify with? Caucasian Hispanic/Latino African American Asian Multiracial Other Prefer not to answer Identifying with ‘the hood’ was seemingly not an option. Icaro Doria is Brazilian, 25 and has been working for the magazine Grande Reportagem, in Lisbon, Portugal, for the last 3 years. »
Dan reminds me of the great words of Lord Hoffman, perfectly judged for circumstances such as these: The Attorney General’s submissions and the judgment of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission treated a threat of serious physical damage and loss of life as necessarily involving a threat to the life of the nation. But in my opinion this shows a misunderstanding of what is meant by “threatening the life of the nation”. »
Last night, for some reason beyond imagining I saw the movie Blue Crush. Really, I was just flicking by when I saw a credit at the start of the film that made me stop and look. It said: “Based on the article Surfer Girls Of Maui by Susan Orlean.” Susan Orlean? That Susan Orlean? It appeared so. And the article really is beautiful. Better I think that the other article I’ll mention and well worth a read. »
London Underground Ad Campaign, Spring 1915: “Why bother about the Germans invading the country - invade it yourself by Underground and the motor bus.” “Wolmar quotes from a study into the Jubilee extension by the Centre for Land Studies. The author, Don Riley, worked out that the £3.5 billion spent on the line had increased the value of the land along its route by £13 billion.” A mordant sense of humour and an obsession with house prices? »
I am very pleased to see that despite losing the election (pretty much a forgone conclusion sadly, in a constituancy that has never returned anything other than a Tory MP) Kerron decided to carry on blogging, and at a much more hospitable location too. From the look of the first few entries he’s really hit the ground running after his practice run of a couple of months ago so I’m looking forward to seeing how it all develops. »