Pieces of a Man Think it. Do it. Be it. Embellish.

67.68.69.70.71.72.73.74.75.76 77.78.79.80.81.82.83.84.85.86 87.88.89.90.91.92.93.94.95.96 97.98.99.00.01.02.03.04.05.06 07.08.09.10

The last sunset of 2006, taken with the phone just outside our house.

Labels: 2006

Just uploaded to Flickr, a few snaps of Xmas Day at Marloes Sands. We've hired the youth hostel there for the last 3 years; it's a farmhouse in a fantastic location about 100m from the cliff top on the very last bit of south-west Wales. More footage to come when I've worked out how to upload from my new camcorder, an amazing birthday present from my family.

Labels: 2006

Another christmas present I've really been getting into is the album Pimpmaster by Soil & Pimp Sessions, especially the two tracks Waltz for a Goddess (4MB) and Wheel within a Wheel (6MB). Enjoy.

Labels: 2006

A new addition to the office wall (2nd from the right) is Bruno the Bear's front-page spread in Munich's Abendzeitung last June.

This was my Secret Santa gift from Tom, composed from a newspaper we saw in Germany during the World Cup while Bruno rampaged through the Southern Tirol causing new havoc on daily basis. On this particular day the paper describes how he ate 12 kilos of honey and murdered two guinea pigs before having a kip in front of a police station.

Most of the other pictures on the wall are also souvenirs of places visited. (Left to Right) A Spanish tabloid with a picture of the bullfight we watched the night before in Seville in 1991. The matador is getting tossed in the air on the end of the bull's horns, at which point Jo cheered the beast and upset lots of Spaniards. Next, a sign from a shop window in Sicily which says 'Facts are needed against the Mafia'. Tellingly, the shop - in Catania, where we lived in 1992 - was boarded up. Finally, to Bruno's right, a road sign from Route 66 in Arizona during our drive from San Francisco to Denver in 1996.

Labels: 2006

Techie but funny; Jakob Nielsen's latest Alertbox, 'Usability in the Movies';

Break into a company -- possibly in a foreign country or on an alien planet -- and step up to the computer. How long does it take you to figure out the UI and use the new applications for the first time? Less than a minute if you're a movie star. The fact that all user interfaces are walk-up-and-use is probably the single most unrealistic aspect of how movies depict computers. In reality, we know all too well that even the smartest users have plenty of problems using even the best designs, let alone the degraded usability typically found in in-house MIS systems or industrial control rooms.

Labels: 2006

Why are we turning away the very fighting spirit that we've needed for quite a while?

Police had to be called to Norwich City's training ground when a supporter interrupted a training session to demand a trial with the club. Players and other staff initially treated the man's demands as a joke when he turned up and insisted on being given a trial. But the situation turned nasty after the man became more agitated and angry and eventually he was escorted out by police. More...

Labels: 2006

The Beeb have created a Kermode review advent calendar. The Da Vinci Code rant is fun, but it's the controlled wrath directed at Little Man that intrigues. For a Wayans brothers' comedy, I'm intrigued to know how it could be so 'downright evil'.

Labels: 2006

Just had to share this gem unearthed by Mike and described in his blog; it's the menu from a Polish restaurant in Sheffield;

Labels: 2006

Today, some Darwin-grade stupidity on a par with the guy recently who - without a balaclava, mind - held up the bank where he was a regular customer known to all the staff.

This time, a man in South Africa tried to take a sickie with the help of a stolen doctor's note. Unfortunately it said he was pregnant. The article observes - in the manner of the People's Front of Judea - that "he lacked the necessary womb to pull off the scam successfully." More...

Labels: 2006