By which I don’t mean a case as in an argument, but a case as in a binding or container.
For reasons of no relevance here, I have just followed a trail of links that led me to an advert with this illustration:
Continue reading “a case for e-readers”
Facebook is in the news again, with its new messaging service – here’s the report from the BBC site. There is just so much I disagree with in the comments and attitudes reported there that I don’t know where to begin. Here are just a few details from the article:
Mark Zuckerberg (Facebook co-founder): “Maybe we can help push the way people do messaging more towards this simple, real-time, immediate personal experience.”
Leaving aside the fact he sounds as if he wants to push people into doing things his way, the phrase “simple, real-time, immediate personal experience” catches my eye. To me, that sounds like a description of conversation. I have a phone for that. And when I have time, I try and actually meet up with the people I want to have a “personal experience” with.
Continue reading “the wrong message”
When I went to university, it was still obligatory for all students to have basic maths and English qualifications, whatever they were going to study. Even today, I’d be surprised if you could become “a scientist” (whatever that might mean) without knowing some simple arithmetic.
So how come the Madrid Science Week is scheduled to last from 8th to 21st of November? My calculations make that 13 nights/14 days, which is a lot longer than a week.
(Note that isnt really a ‘fortnight’, though, as that would be 14 nights, equivalent to the Spanish quincena which is 15 days.)
I’ve been interested in relativity for a long time – or at least it seems that way! – ever since the 1970s when Dr Walker drew a stickman following a stickwoman and flashing a torch at her on the blackboard in a maths lecture at Nottingham University. I’m pretty sure the theory was that if they were both travelling at the speed of light the woman would never be aware of her pursuer. Or something like that.
[National Institute of Standards and Technology] physicists […] demonstrate[d] that you age faster when you stand just a couple of steps higher on a staircase
and
Similarly, the NIST researchers observed another aspect of relativity—that time passes more slowly when you move faster
I think that means that if I want to keep young, it’s time to stop sitting in front of the computer and go and run around doing the cleaning downstairs.
My partner just brought me home a reader – what more could any writer want?!
Well, no, it’s an e-reader, and it’s only on loan, but it’s still enormously interesting. I quote from the manual, with my own reactions and thoughts in italics:
Note on use:
Gentle reader,
• Replacement or repair of a broken or scratched touch panel is not covered by the warranty.
So you can touch, but you mustn’t scratch, prod, niggle or pick. Mind you, even touching is fairly libertine for this day and age.
Continue reading “gentle reader”
don't confuse the narrator 