Sunday, 24 April, 2005

Return of the native

Really thoughtful article here from the BBCs Stephen Sackur on his return to the UK after 15 years of foreign jaunts. Until I was 18 years old, I had never met a black man or woman. Nor, knowingly at least,…

Watching and Reading

Watched Shaun of the Dead last night, an Amazon Rental DVD. The only one of the three that arrived on Friday without a crack in it. Still, it was an excellent, funny film and I recommend it. I emailed Amazon…

Saturday, 23 April, 2005

Bowes Museum

A friend mentioned today that she had visited The Bowes Museum in County Durham. Quickly googled it, and what an impressive building it is: The reason this cropped up? The Raphael painting The Madonna of the Pinks is currently on…

ITunes Frenzy

Just bought a few tracks on ITunes: Razorlight’s brilliant new single Somewhere Else A few tracks by mid ’90s brit poppers Shed Seven: On Standby, Chasing Rainbows and Where Have you Been Tonight? The Boo Radley’s great Wake Up Boo!…

Rip It Up and Start Again

How good does this look exactly? From The Guardian: The problem with popular culture is its popularity: if lots of people like something, it is by no means a guarantee that it is going to be any good. And the…

In Defence of Microsoft

Thoughtful piece here by Vic Gundotra about Microsoft ( he work for them). It’s currently in vogue to discuss the “End of Microsoft”. A stock price that has remained flat for some time, recent high-profile departures, repeated slips in schedule…

Friday, 22 April, 2005

New Books

Just bought 3 books for the price of 2 from Waterstones, my first book purchases for some time. Here’s what I got, along with a relevant review from The Guardian. Small Island – Andrea Levy Andrea Levy’s narrative switches between…

Amazon DVD Rental

I joined the new (to the UK) Amazon DVD rental scheme this week. Here’s how it works: Amazon take £10 a month from my debit card each month. In exchange, they send me 6 DVDs a month, I can have…

Wednesday, 20 April, 2005

Adobe Purchase of Macromedia

Jason Kottke provides a very thorough roundup of the various views being put forth here. For background, here is the BBC online article: Adobe buys Macromedia for $3.4bn Shares in Macromedia have risen 10% on news its US rival Adobe…