<p><a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/?p=1247">Jono’s post</a> about taxi cabs and close calls with death reminded me of how little hassle I’ve usually had with cab drivers.</p> <p>I usually chat away to cabbies, and tip pretty generously on most occasions, but one guy in San Francisco took the biscuit, and didn’t get tipped. Or chatted to, as I was giving him directions.</p> <p>I had to go 8 blocks from Clay to Green carrying a load of crap in plastic bags, so thought “fuck it, cab”. There was one across from the hotel. “Battery and Green”, I’d asked. “Do you know how to get there?” he replied? I thought he was implying it wasn’t that far, or did I know where I was going? Nah, he was asking because <strong>he didn’t bloody know where it was</strong>. Then, when I gently discussed how cabbies in the UK have to do The Knowledge before they’re let loose on the streets, he told me that that was “not true, they can just go out and drive like here”. Hey, don’t mind me, I only bloody live there. I ended up having to guide this guy to the destination as, by his own admission, he’d only been working for two days, including that one.</p> <p>Then there was the private cab driver who, on taking me from Chelmsford town centre to Stansted Airport on a Friday afternoon, seemed to be dominating the conversation. He was basically chatting me up. He even broke my cardinal rule, which is when taking a cab for work travel, expense the bare fare, but pay with a tip. That way, the tip comes out of my own pocket. But nooooo, this guy threw an extra fiver on the receipt. “There you go, mate, something back for yourself”. Brrrrrr. I took a meal off my expenses that week to counter it.</p>

These days we're designing frameworks for user interaction rather than static artefacts. Clever observation.

Air, Flex and Silverlight are "back to the future" approaches for Rich Internet Applications that would have us believe that the future of the web lies in a proprietary animation engine (Flash) or an ancient and proprietary fat client architecture (Silverlight). I couldn't agree more: these solutions are not the solution. We'll see how it all turns out, but like Christopher Keene, my religion goes to Ajax and an evolution of HTML to accommodate applications needs while still retaining the original openness that made the Web a success.

<p>So, I finally finished Grand Theft Auto IV, nearly 4 months after buying it. Well, I thought I had.</p> <p>When the final credits had finished rolling by, I got some achievements for being awesome enough to finish the game … and then I was back in Liberty City. Not at the start again, but where I was when I finished. Then the phone goes: it’s Niko’s cousin, checking he’s OK.</p> <p>What the hell, <strong>the game hasn’t stopped yet</strong>. I checked the stats page: apparently after doing all the missions, I’ve only finished 67% of the game. It’s not finished yet.</p> <p>Augh.</p>

<p>So two things i’ve been looking forward to for a long time are going to see <a href="http://imdb.com/title/tt0468569/">The Dark Knight</a> and finally getting to see a movie at the <a href="http://www.glasgowsciencecentre.org/imax.aspx">IMAX cinema out at the Glasgow Science Centre</a>. It’s a crying shame that the actual experience of going to watch the movie didn’t match up to the movie itself at any level.</p> <div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neuro/676713/" title="IMAX® at Glasgow Science Centre by neuro, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/1/676713_7e5f7a1a9e.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="IMAX® at Glasgow Science Centre" /></a></div> <p>So the movie itself is just frickin’ awesome. All kinds of awesome. Every performance is note perfect, and makes me itch for more. I don’t want to go too much into the movie, as I tried to stay clear of any pre-release hype to keep the movie fresh for me when I saw it, and I don’t want to spoil the experience for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. However, if you’ve seen it, you hopefully know what I’m talking about.</p> <p>No, the reason I’m blogging about going to see the Dark Knight in IMAX is sadly rationale for yet another “neuro is ranting” post.</p> <p>The actual experience of the IMAX segments of The Dark Knight were truly stunning, expanding the more traditional widescreen segments vertically up- and downwards to absolutely fill the field of vision. However, the non-IMAX segments of the movie had terrible black level definition, as though someone had turned the brightness way up on your television. That’s my only real complaint about the movie presentation itself, as the IMAX segments were amazing (I’ll keep reiterating that to make the point that there’s nothing wrong with the IMAX process itself), and the sound system was leg-shakingly loud.</p> <p>Well, except when the ushers used it as a PA system. Just before the start of the movie, after seeing some postage-stamp sized ads, and a 5 minute fluff piece on Christopher Nolan and crew espousing how awesome IMAX is to shoot with, one of the ushers gave us the lowdown on where the exits where (I’ve just gotten back from a couple of weeks travelling; the last thing I want to hear is someone on a PA telling me where the exits are … are there lifejackets in this cinema too?) and to “keep your feet on the ground, get ready for The Dark Knight: the IMAX Experience”. Just get on with it!</p> <p>I should point out that my agitation at this point was that it was around 11pm by now. We’d gotten to the Glasgow Science Centre at about 9pm to get our tickets and avoid a massive queue &mdash; indeed, we were amongst the first into the cinema itself &mdash; but then we were made to queue until around 10:45pm for a 10:15pm showing. It was nearly half one in the morning by the time we got outside.</p> <p>So the movie starts. I’m sat in my rather uncomfortable seat, drinking my bottle of Coke which had gotten lukewarm between my buying it and actually getting sat down. Our little movie going group had already eaten most of our movie munchies. And we still had two and a half hours to go. This was not going well.</p> <p>And so the movie finished. Not five seconds after the end credits have appeared, the lights went up (well I say “lights”, it was a massive spot up in the rafters somewhere) and another usher grabbed the mike to tell us to take our rubbish with us, and to use the exits at the back of the theatre. Meanwhile, the credits have gotten to Michael Caine’s name. I don’t mind the lights coming up after say 10-15 seconds of end credits; most movie-goers are on their feet by that point anyway, but to actually interrupt the movie by blabbering on a PA is massively disrespectful to not only the feature, but the process too.</p> <p>I now have an indelible impression that going to see a movie or feature in IMAX will be marred by dreadful pre-entry procedures, awful seating, poor herding of patrons, and shoddy treatment by the staff to whatever’s being shown; sadly I shall never return to the Glasgow IMAX cinema. For every moment I was enjoying the movie, there was another wishing I was back at home, in my comfy chair watching something in HD on Sky or on my Mac mini, and that surely is a damning indictment of any “experience”.</p>

<p>As someone said on IRC this morning: “the FSF appear to have come up with <a href="http://www.defectivebydesign.org/apple-challenge">the perfect plan for how to look like a bunch of annoying, smart-arse tossers</a>“. Has the <a href="http://www.fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</a> gone nuts?</p> <p><strong>Update 13:30:</strong> I don’t seem to be alone on this: <a href="http://popey.com/Demented_by_Design">popey</a>, <a href="http://mgdm.net/weblog/defective-defective-by-design">mgdm</a>, <a href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2294">ZDNet</a>, <a href="http://mobile.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/26/1827208">Slashdot</a>.</p> <p>I’ve been saying for a while that the more zealous methods used by proponents of Free software have been somewhat over-the-top, and do more to detract from the FOSS public image than to build upon it in a constructive way. Now they’ve taken a sip from the poisoned Kool-Aid. The FSF, via it’s Defective by Design campaign, is advocating that people block-book sessions at an <a href="http://www.apple.com/retail/">Apple Store</a>’s <a href="http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/">Genius Bar</a>, a sort of drop-in and bookable repair and support centre. “Having lots of slots booked will get Apple’s attention and ensure that the Geniuses have done their homework”, says the ‘Apple Challenge’ page, posted by FSF employee <a href="http://mat.tl/">Matt Lee</a>. The rationale apparently is that Apple is now the enemy, since Vista is doing more damage to itself than anyone else can from outside Microsoft, and the first target are the Apple Store’s Genius Bars.</p> <p><strong>Update 13:35:</strong> Just noticed this on IRC … <br /><tt>[13:33]&lt;mgdm&gt; popey: you mean mattl actually uses a Mac?<br />[13:33] &lt;popey&gt; he does<br />[13:33] &lt;mgdm&gt; IRONY OVERLOAD *head asplodes*</tt></p> <p>My employer purchased both AppleCare and ProCare for my MBP, which has come in extremely handy when the ‘O’ key snapped off (keyboard replaced overnight), my battery failed to hold a charge (replaced immediately upon attending pre-booked Genius Bar session) and my motherboard GPU failed (motherboard replaced in 90 minutes). Now imagine any of the following scenarios: you’re unsure how to use your newly purchased Macbook; you’re trying to connect a camera to your Mac to transfer photos to iPhoto and print them to send to relatives in a frame; your machine has failed in some way and urgently needs repaired, as you use it for your business. You try to book a session at the Genius Bar to resolve any of these issues, and … it’s fully booked. For days. Wow, they must be busy.</p> <p>Well, no, it’s actually a bunch of uber-asshole Free software zealots thinking they’re “special”, attempting to monopolise a consumer resource in an attempt to “educate” or “catch out” Apple Store employees, some of whom may have used Macs for years, others may have had a crash course in Apple products so that they know as much as they can about the stuff they sell, but little else. Why harass these people? It’s like having a constant stream of people going up to the counter at McDonald’s and espousing the benefits of a low-carb, high-fibre diet to the person who can do the least about it. Genius Bar employees may know all about FOSS, but critically <strong>it’s not their job to promote it</strong>. It’s not a “product” to be “sold”, but a philosophy to be shared.</p> <p>A plea to the FSF: stop harassing Apple staff, and stop alienating the very people you’re trying to “save”. There are better, more ethical, more agreeable methods to promote FOSS. What you’re doing is none of those things. In the meantime, you’ve virtually guaranteed I will never promote, condone, contribute or donate to any FSF body, project or campaign. I’ve had a “Warning, DRM” defectivebydesign.org sticker on my Macbook Pro for a while now, mainly for comedic value. It’s gone now. I no longer want to be seen to be promoting these idiots in any way. As much as I love the thought of Free and Open Source Software being used everywhere and anywhere, this is just not the way to be going about it.</p> <div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neuro/2710328838/" title="Ripped Up DRM Sticker by neuro, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3036/2710328838_9889a76fb4.jpg" width="375" height="500" alt="Ripped Up DRM Sticker" /></a></div>

It's all been a bit space based round here recently, but this video is too good not to share, a Shuttle launch caught on video from an Air Canada flight. Hat tip: 37 Signals

It's all been a bit space based round here recently, but this video is too good not to share, a Shuttle launch caught on video from an Air Canada flight. Hat tip: 37 Signals

Sometimes you see things that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The Deep Impact spacecraft, with it's original mission complete and now undertaking science under the EPOXI moniker, turned it's cameras back towards the Earth from 50 million kilometers away and over the course of several hours caught The Moon transiting The Earth! Phil Plait sums it up beautifully: While there is science galore in these animations, I think their real impact is the visceral one from simply seeing them. As Carl Sagan once said: everyone you have ever met, every human who has lived and died, lived out their lives on that blue ball. And yet here we are, in the 21st century, plains apes allowed to evolve and satiate their curiosity, now with the ability to lob metal proxies into deep space, look back, and see ourselves. Science. I love this stuff.

Sometimes you see things that make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The Deep Impact spacecraft, with it's original mission complete and now undertaking science under the EPOXI moniker, turned it's cameras back towards the Earth from 50 million kilometers away and over the course of several hours caught The Moon transiting The Earth! Phil Plait sums it up beautifully: While there is science galore in these animations, I think their real impact is the visceral one from simply seeing them. As Carl Sagan once said: everyone you have ever met, every human who has lived and died, lived out their lives on that blue ball. And yet here we are, in the 21st century, plains apes allowed to evolve and satiate their curiosity, now with the ability to lob metal proxies into deep space, look back, and see ourselves. Science. I love this stuff.

We all have tattoos already, of course. They're our stories, our mental scars. The things we carry around with us, just under the surface. Your first breakup is always there, just around the corner in every relationship that comes after. Tattoos like this may not be seen, but they're just as permanent. True. Derek ponders about getting a tatoo. (then gets one)

[O]ne more reason for being judicious in the use of JavaScript - I am predicting that within 3 years 35%+ of all "web" traffic here on campus will be consumed by mobile/hand-held devices, so I for one am watching this issue carefully. John Foliot wrote a very thorough email to the W3C-WAI-IG ML (Web Accessiblity Initiative Interest Group mailing list) a few months ago, and I should have pointed to it here much earlier. His point is that while from a desktop browser point of view the problem of Javascript looks like it's kind of solved, the can of worms is reopening again with the emergence of the mobile web.

I just read this “I still use Windows” statement. It hasn't always been pretty (see: Windows ME), but through it all I've figured out every little trick there is to know about running Windows. I'm a monster on Windows. Many times in the last ten years I've been told to switch to either Mac or Linux, and look!, I'm still using Windows. One day I'll do a list of my grudges, one of which is why on earth does Ubuntu run so nicely on my laptops from a live CD and fails miserably to do the same when installed (special keyboard keys, anyone?). And every time I get a “Did you download the latest and greatest version?” from one of my geeky friends or the other. And every time I get grumpy: I did download and burn a lot of distros in the last ten years, none of which did the trick. I gave away 25 distros on CDs a few months ago. That's right, twenty-five! And I tested them all in all those years! And I know all the ethical DRM problems with Windows etc., and I do agree with open-source people that the Windows way is not the right way. (By the way I'm all for open-source, basically the only main non-open-source software I'm using is my OS.) Don't bother replying if it's just to flame me or tell me how much better those other OS's are. Ten yeas ago I would have listened, because I wanted to learn and hack things together, now I don't have the time and energy for it. I want things to work for me, and Windows does the trick. I want to do web stuff and listen to my legal MP3s and view my photos and answer my email. And I want to be able to use all the Windows shortcuts that are now second nature to me. We'll see, one day. When Vista is the only breed of Windows available, I may reconsider. (Via the Standblog)

This morning I was wearing my worn-and-torn t-shirt I bought a few years ago from the Fray schwag shop. It's purple, large and comfy, and although it's slightly unsewn on the sleeves and out of shape, I love it very much. Reminds me of olden web times when you felt part of the “elite who have a web site” before the blog craze, times when the Fray was active online and I was learning a new trick everyday. It features the Criminal cartoony character, and it says “Criminal is when you stop caring”, which is also a reason why my sentimentality won't let me throw it away. It's a face with a stocking on its top with holes for the eyes, and it's roughly the shape of a raindrop. This morning, as I was saying before being interrupted by my reminiscing self, I was wearing this t-shirt. My daughter saw it and asked me to explain what it was. Again. (yeah, three-year-olds want the same explanation a few times to fix it into their brains. You get used to it). And she smiled and concluded “It could be a talking raindrop, I like this idea better”. Talking raindrops. I love child poetry.

The BBC have announced that they'll be removing hCalendar microformats from their online programme listings, because of the accessibility issues with the ABBR design pattern. Oh how I've longed for such news. I love the idea of microformats, although in the long run code is machine-made and machine-readable, so RDFa will be a hit later, I'm sure. But I love the idea that those of us who work on smaller projects can include a dose of semanticism into our HTML without all the fuss of alternate resources etc., which is admittedly difficult for many of us mere mortals. Yet I belong to those who think the use of abbr is A Bad Idea, as I said back in 2007 on the WaSP's hAccessibility article. Here's to hoping the BBC will shake a few resolutions in the microformats community.

Religion has convinced people that there's an invisible man… living in the sky. Who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, and burn, and scream, until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves you and he needs money. - George Denis Patrick Carlin (12 May 1937 - 22 June 2008)

Religion has convinced people that there's an invisible man… living in the sky. Who watches everything you do every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a list of ten specific things he doesn't want you to do. And if you do any of these things, he will send you to a special place, of burning and fire and smoke and torture and anguish for you to live forever, and suffer, and burn, and scream, until the end of time. But he loves you. He loves you. He loves you and he needs money. - George Denis Patrick Carlin (12 May 1937 - 22 June 2008)

<p><a href="http://earth.google.com/">Google Earth</a> has had 3D building views for a while, but I didn’t realise how good the quality of <a href="http://google-latlong.blogspot.com/2008/04/introducing-google-earth-43.html">the newer photorealistic buildings</a> were until I decided to recreate <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/unstable/2178682802/">one of my favourite skyline shots</a> using Google Earth. At the thumbnail level, it’s hard to tell which is which. Gobsmackingly impressive stuff.</p> <div align="center"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neuro/2595847787/" title="San Francisco Skyline (Real) by neuro, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3271/2595847787_8d8b7f88bd_m.jpg" width="240" height="150" alt="San Francisco Skyline (Real)" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/neuro/2596681456/" title="San Francisco Skyline (Google Earth) by neuro, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3187/2596681456_b28c866950_m.jpg" width="240" height="150" alt="San Francisco Skyline (Google Earth)" /></a></div>