Scattered Things

Good evening.

Wed, 22 May 2013 08:53:45 +0200

Good evening.

The storm cometh

Mon, 20 May 2013 17:33:26 +0200

The storm cometh

Color Test - Online Color Challenge | X-Rite

Fri, 17 May 2013 17:20:09 +0200

Color Test - Online Color Challenge | X-Rite:

Try out X-Rite’s free online color test challenge to see how well you can differentiate hues. Find out how well you see color and compare your results today!

Apparently, I have PERFECT colour vision!!

OK, OK, enough boring flowers

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:26:05 +0200

OK, OK, enough boring flowers

Photo

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:25:12 +0200

Nice weather right? (at EMBL Advanced Training Centre)

Fri, 17 May 2013 15:23:48 +0200

Nice weather right? (at EMBL Advanced Training Centre)

Reality?

Thu, 16 May 2013 17:36:56 +0200

Reality?

Beauty is brief

Thu, 16 May 2013 12:13:11 +0200

Beauty is brief

Free Trials and Tire Kickers – Marco.org

Wed, 15 May 2013 18:33:08 +0200

Free Trials and Tire Kickers – Marco.org:

Browsing the App Store and getting new apps, often spending a few bucks along the way, is a form of casual entertainment for a lot of people. This role used to be filled by movies and music. Today, it’s filled by browsing the internet and playing with mobile apps. Usually, they’re games, but not always — modern mainstream culture, especially among younger people, seems to be more interested in media and social apps than games.

This apps-as-entertainment market falls apart if app pricing rises above casual-disposable levels for most people. Few people balk at spending $1-3 for something that doesn’t end up being that great, but when someone’s $30 app is disappointing, that’s going to stick with them and inhibit future purchases.

Great analysis from Marco Arment about why an iOS App Store with free trials and higher per-app prices might not actually be better for either consumers or developers.

Ignore the content. My intention is merely to show the terrible...

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:23:17 +0200

Ignore the content. My intention is merely to show the terrible distortion with the Nexus 4 camera at close range. Those are straight lines… apparently!

This made me smile :)

Wed, 15 May 2013 14:02:44 +0200

This made me smile :)

Charles Moore: David Cameron would like to forget gay marriage, but it will haunt him

Tue, 14 May 2013 20:43:33 +0200

Charles Moore: David Cameron would like to forget gay marriage, but it will haunt him:

Charles Moore seems to be the perfect storm of right-wing, religious opinion

According to the “public sector equality duty”, all acts and institutions of government must enforce Equality in all its various “strands”. (There are seven of them, and “gender reassignment” is given the same status as “religion”.) So if same-sex marriage is permitted by law, opposition to it will become a form of discrimination against sexual orientation (one of the seven strands).

Yes Charles… and the problem with that is what? Of course gender reassignment is given the same status as religion. If anything, religion is more of a choice than what you feel your gender to be. Of course, you have neither the experience nor the desire to understand this.

The Government says until it is blue – or rather, pink – in the face that conscientious objections to same-sex marriage will be protected..

Oh ha ha ha. Very clever Charles…

By accident, then, the Government is introducing, for the first time, a definition of marriage which has no sexual element. Yet it refuses to face the logical consequence of this surprising innovation. If sexual intercourse is not part of the definition of same-sex marriage, why should blamelessly cohabiting sisters not marry one another in order to avoid inheritance tax? Why should father not marry son? Why shouldn’t heterosexual bachelor chum marry heterosexual bachelor chum? What, come to think about it, is so great about the idea of monogamy, once sex and children are removed from the equation? Does the word “marriage” any longer contain much meaning?

You see, Charles, there’s this little thing called love, which despite your obsession with genitalia, is what marriage is actually about.

Respectable people are truly terrified of being thought anti-homosexual. In a way, they are right to be, because attacking people for their personal preferences can be a nasty thing.

Homosexuality is not a personal preference. Religion is.

But here’s the good news: most people my age will outlive people like Charles (I’m 33, he’s 56). So, at worst, we’ll just have to wait another 20 years before we can start making progress. Or maybe that’s not good news. Equality would be rather nice now, don’t you think?

PS. It does not surprise me to learn that Charles Moore is the official biographer of Margaret Thatcher.

Steve Jobs' Lost Interview Converts Me From Hater To Fanboy

Tue, 14 May 2013 13:47:21 +0200

Steve Jobs' Lost Interview Converts Me From Hater To Fanboy:

Normally I caution entrepreneurs not to model themselves after Steve Jobs […] But my aversion to his popularity prevented me—until the other week—from hearing these statements, which resonate with my values.

This article could also have been titled ‘Idiot realises he is an idiot’. He’s essentially saying: ‘Despite never having bothered to find out how one of the most successful CEOs ever actually thought, I’ve spent my career recommending that people ignore him’.

What I really love about this, though, is that the author presents Jobs’s insights in a such a way as to imply that he himself is on the same level of excellence and brilliance that Jobs attained. Sort of ‘Oh, I hadn’t realised that Jobs was as smart as me’. It’s a self-promotional piece of trash from an author using the legacy and insight of a brilliant, dead man to blow his own horn. Boring.

Nokia Lumia 925: our latest innovations in imaging and design

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:33:00 +0200

Nokia Lumia 925: our latest innovations in imaging and design:

Today we announce the Nokia Lumia 925, bringing together the best in low light imaging, a smarter camera and a beautiful new look. The Nokia Lumia 925 comes with a sleek, metal-finished design, a new AMOLED display…

I think Nokia just nailed it… if only it were running Android.

Should Nokia switch to Android, or is too late?

Fri, 10 May 2013 16:32:03 +0200

Should Nokia switch to Android, or is too late?:

Nokia shareholders tell Stephen Elop to “find a new road.” Should this road lead to Android or is it too late?

I would buy an Android powered Nokia Lumia in a heartbeat. They should have gone with Android. I really enjoy Windows Phone, but it just isn’t the OS to bet the future of the company on.

Cult of Mac regurgitates the good, as well as the bad

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:38:34 +0200

Cult of Mac regurgitates the good, as well as the bad:

This is the kind of analysis Cult of Mac should be providing, rather than the regurgitation of incorrect news pieces offered by Killian Bell.

HOWEVER, it is still regurgitation: Alex’s article is based on legwork done and reported by others (Fortune, in this case). I would also note that it is written to correct/expand upon a CoM article by John Brownlee that itself regurgitates an incorrect news piece (this time from Reuters), much as Killian’s did.

I do understand that CoM needs a constant stream of updates and content to keep the page view rate up, but there must surely be a better and more quality-driven way than this?

I needed to hear this…

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:28:49 +0200

I needed to hear this…

Time to defrost!

Thu, 09 May 2013 21:51:04 +0200

Time to defrost!

Rather a lovely evening

Thu, 09 May 2013 20:14:06 +0200

Rather a lovely evening

Why are mobile phone pouches on bags still made to fit the Nokia 6310?

Wed, 08 May 2013 16:20:27 +0200

Seriously, I don’t get it. Phones haven’t looked like this for at least 5 years…