Category: life

If today was your last day, did you do somethng you’d be happy with? A thoughtful post from Evelyn Rodriguez about making sure your life is worth living.

I take 2 days with limited time and minimal access to the web and there’s far too much to read. But it looks like AOL start an interesting sweepstake in the US tomorrow, giving away $20k in gold bars, $75k in cash and a 2003 Hummer, all of which were seized from spammers following court […]

A few thngs in the news caught my eye today. Scientists can read minds. Or at least work out, after a lot of practice, which of two pictures the brain is looking at, or where about in a film the subject has reached. The BBC report on 2 papers that have been published, indicating that […]

Here’s your chance – and you don’t even have to move out of London. Danny Wallace has taken his dream and declared himself King of a new country. No need to call in the movers, his territory consists of his flat in Bow, a decision made after a failed attempt to invade Eel Pie Island, […]

The police will be everywhere today – has anyone else noticed they appear to be going round in threes? Update: counted 45 police around Waterloo, up from last week. The Independent is starting a new Bridget Jones Diary, from Helen Fielding. I was going to read it, but it’s behind a paywall…£1 to pay. £1. […]

In the chat yesterday I realised that I’d sent off an email to one of participants, Ethan at The Vision Thing, a few hours beforehand. Then I went and signed up for a dinner in August and realised I had met the rest of the people signed up to date.

A tornado. In Birmingham?????? The IRA stating its armed campaign is over I can believe; a tornado – I have problems with this.

Sarah Blow has gone and organised a London Girl’s Geek Dinner, as she promised a week or so ago. The sign up sheet is over here; guys are welcome but only if invited by, or bring, one of the girls.

At OpenTech last week, one of the panels I missed was abuot a UK Digital rights Organisation. Out of it came a pledge to set up a UK group, similar to the US based EFF. Suw Charman and Danny O’Brien both write about it today, and the Pledgebank pledge, to donate £5 a month to […]

In Waterstone’s at lunch there’s a display advertising self-published books, with a £50 off voucher plus the opportunity to have your book displayed in Waterstone’s on Oxford Street. Looking at the publishing company’s site, authorhouse, there’s no mention of it at all, despite the voucher pointing you at the site for details . What’s even […]

Tuesday, I had comfortably set a new record for policemen seen in any one place for me. I counted 22 in my walk across the concourse of Waterloo station and down into the Tube system. Today, that number pales into insignificance. I started off the day with a first – 5 police at the Train […]

In today’s paper version of the Metro, there are 2 letters from readers that suggest alternative tactics to avoid raising suspicion. The first is a fairly easy one – a girl wearing a huge backpack had put a sign on the reverse – ‘I am going camping’ But that won’t be foolproof, so there is […]

A few weeks ago, Sam, a Chinese Crested dog, won a competition to find the world’s ugliest dog for the third time (does he get to keep the trophy in perpetuity). In line with today’s online meida world, the dog has a blog. And in an experiment (for meme epidemiology I guess) Doc Searls is […]

THere’s a website that is run locally, for local news. It has a forum section for quesitons and debate. One of the latest questions: “What exactly does one do on the Tube when one spots a nervous-looking fellow passenger of Middle Eastern or Pakistani appearance with a rucksack?” And then suggest a few course of […]

I was out of the office all day visiting an agency and following the news online. Got home by cab, better than trying to work with the tube system. As with 2 weeks ago, wikinews was a great summary page, especially when BBC/Sky etc were down. The funiest quote: “The man who was holding the […]

Not even at my work so have no bar this time… Info here London Metropolitan Police commissioner Ian Blair has confirmed that there have been three small explosions at Warren Street, Oval and Shepherd’s Bush tube stations. Incidents have also been reported on a bus in Hackney and at Waterloo Station. The Northern line, the […]

I picked up the new Harry Potter over the weekend (along with the rest of the 3% of the population who also bought it). It’s nice to see that free enterprise is alive and well, as copies flooded Mumbai on Monday. However, they were not as fast as the digital copies; the book was scanned, […]

Got a busy few days ahead. Thursday, there’s a couple of farewell parties at work – so free food and drink. Friday, I’m here, at this week’s geek dinner and Saturday I’m at Opentech in Hammersmith. Sunday – I sleep. Meanwhile, just seen why they delayed the CSI season closer last week on Channel5; yuck, […]

Whilst the numbers of the dead from the London bombings rises to 55, Iraq have lost over 200 in the last week.

Oxford Street stopped at noon. Led by the buses, the traffic stopped; people came out of offices and shops to fill the pavements. Silence descended; no conversation, no roaring traffic noises. The only people moving were press, both photography and TV. And the odd tourist, wondering round looking slightly bewildered at why no-one was moving […]