Archive for 2004
My Society 29 Dec 2004
One of the chapters in Backroom Boys (see Reading page) is dedicated to how the game Elite came about, from the creators’ first experiences of computer programming to how they overcame many of the technical obstacles. Ultimately it led to the creation of the world’s first computer games revolution: a game that sold almost as [...]
Christmas Films 24 Dec 2004
My suggestions for movies to watch on UK terrestrial TV over the Christmas period: 24th December — Christmas Eve The Karate Kid (12:10 pm C4) Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (12:50 pm ITV1) Babe (2:10 pm BBC1) My Fair Lady (2:30 pm BBC2) Shrek (6:40 pm BBC1) Bonnie and Clyde (12:10 am Five) Gone with the [...]
Hotel Hitler 23 Dec 2004
Recently the BBC reported that the giant Rossiya Hotel in Moscow was to be demolished. They stated that the Rossiya was the world’s biggest when it was built in the 1960′s. Well, I’m afraid they were a little off. You see, I remember catching the tale-end of a program on the Seebad Prora Hotel, which [...]
Fear of Time 21 Dec 2004
I’m not sure, but I think I suffer from Chronophobia. The reason I’m unsure is that I don’t fear time as such, I fear not having enough of it. It’s a strange thing, like some sort of genetic-level impulse, an instinct, that means I think I’m running out of time, or causes me to worry [...]
Turn of Phrase 18 Dec 2004
While perusing some of Michael’s images on Flickr I came across one with some notes that grabbed my attention. The notes were, I assume, about little phrases he has stuck on his monitor(s): Do or do not. There is no try. If there is no wind. Row. Powered by 1.21 gigawatts. Some interesting, and indeed [...]
Travel Tip 17 Dec 2004
There are many methods for stopping the build-up of pressure in your ears when flying. Most people recommend swallowing often, hence the boiled sweets. In extreme cases you can blow your nose (or grab it and pretend to blow), thereby forcing the air out. Personally, I’ve found that yawning is the easiest and most reliable [...]
HTML for Everyone 15 Dec 2004
While reading an (excellent) article on how to build a better web browser (hat tip: Matt) I started thinking about why the makers of word processing software weren’t using HTML as their native format (this is one of the strengths of the human brain, it doesn’t matter how many terraflops a super computer has, it [...]
Doctor Who? 14 Dec 2004
I don’t know why, but I was trawling my bookmarks the other day and I came across one for Peter Anghelides that I don’t visit very often. Now, I have fond memories of Doctor Who and I’ll be taking a look at the new series they’re supposed to be making, but I’m not sure I’d [...]
Asserting Your Identity 12 Dec 2004
Now I’m not a numismatist (a coin collector), but having Euros floating about in my pockets all the time (I need the change for the train) means I was idly wondering about the designs on the back. Somewhere deep in the confused recesses of my mind, I remembered that each country produced it’s own designs, [...]
Request a Track 12 Dec 2004
If music be the food of love, play on. I’m not entirely sure why I quoted that. Maybe because it bears a passing relevance to this post, maybe because I’m a pretentious twit, maybe just because I could. Perhaps a bit of all three. I just did, okay. Anyway, I, like a great many people, [...]