Atomic Razor

The Gift of Sound and Vision

wotzon.gif (GIF Image, 1024x970 pixels) - Scaled (69%)

Seen via the Weasel.

Some points to note

• the sound and vision were broadcast on different frequencies. Does this fit in with Howards Waldrop's short story "Mr Goober's Show"?
• "From Monday, 6th September, a special film transmission intended for the Industry only will given from 11 a.m. to 12 daily." Note the capitalisation of "Industry". What was this special film transmission? Some kind of test card or engineering information? It sounds more interesting than the actual programmes.
• all the programmes seem very short. "Play Parade" seems to be the longest at 30 minutes. We only get 5 minutes of the Women's League of Health and Beauty at a time. Wads this a technical limitation?  Was it impossible to run the cameras for more than a few minutes without a valve blowing?
• why 4.5 and not 4.30?
• Thursday's talk on advertising sounds interesting, but it is only ten minutes long. Topiary on Monday got 15 minutes (was it a studio demonstration?). We can only speculate on how long "Risotto" was or even whether it was a cooking demonstration or a dramatic/musical piece.

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Primary Colours

I see that Frank Field is floating the idea of US-style primaries in the UK. (I am depressed to discover that Freedland is only a year older than me.) I remember Des Wilson floating this idea in So You Want to Be Prime Minister? I can't remember why Des thought it would be a good idea. It's not as though electoral participation is high in the US, although it has plunged in recent years in the UK. It is possible that party political participation is higher in the US. Perhaps that was why Wilson was advocating it. Thinking about it, I seem to recall that he considered primaries more democratic because of the capability for ordinary voters to influence candidate selection directly. Of course, in most countries, including the US, political parties are state-funded. That couldn't happen here, but it would eliminate the absurd funding scandals we have witnessed over the last few years. If it did happen though it would be possible to register as a Labour Party member either for free or on the payment of a nominal fee, £5 or £10. You then be able to vote in the party primaries for council candidates and PPCs. It's not an absurd idea; perhaps it would help to increase participation. At the moment, only the cabal (local and national) gets to decide who can stand as a candidate. What I would like to know is whether Field and Wilson were channelling the same idea that is continually floating around the UK political policy wonkosphere or whether this is a case of independent reinvention.

A Second Earth in Our Solar System

A Second Earth in Our Solar System

All very Firefly if you ask me.

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Today's Retro Future

By the year 2000, Mintel suggests that small pocket phones "will be ascommon as Walkmans... " People would have to develop a whole news ocial code... You could not, for example, take calls in the middle of a crowded restaurant.  Indeed, the potential nuisance effect of pocket phones (which, of course, exist at the moment, but are clumsy and extremely expensive) is enormous, though perhaps no more so than the nuisance of the transistor radio. Besides, the social value of being able to make a phone call at any time will also be extremely large.
The Guardian, May 6 1986

Well, you can't get everything right...

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Do the Right Thing

Absolutely, incredibly, utterly wrong! | Anatole Kaletsky - Times Online

Well, no, actually. Kaletsky fails to make the crucial point that banks are not like other businesses and that the failure of the Rock would have been cataclysmic both economically (it would, in effect, have destroyed the UK banking sector because the Bank of England's credibility as lender of last resort (backed by the Treasury) would have been removed, which would cast doubt on the stability of other mortgage banks heavily exposed to subprime debt and probably led to the failure of other banks such as the Alliance and Leicester and Bradford and Bingley; it would also have shattered the reputation of the golden circle of the British banking club - the chief executives of the large retail banks didn't go to the Governor of the Bank of England with a joint rescue plan) and politically (first UK bank to fail since the C19th, queues around the block at the A&L and the B&B like in some banana republic, tens of thousands of (medium to large) savers seriously out of pocket).

Darling has finally done what the Razor urged him to do in November. This ought to cost Darling his job; I can only hope that it doesn't cost Brown his job. It's like going to the dentist: an ounce of courage now will save a pound of grief later. Nationialising in the autumn would have been politically unpalatable, but at least it would have demonstrated boldness and decisiveness and it would have played well in the Labour heartlands (I know, I know). We've ended up with something close to the worst possible scenario. I fear this is Labour's Black Wednesday, but I take heart from the fact that only once in the postwar period (in 1970) has a government with a working majority been replaced overnight by a government of the opposite political complexion. And Labour still has that photograph of Cameron at the Bullingdon Club...   

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Microsoft in Good Software Shock!

I'm actually a reasonably big fan of Microsoft. They do, after all, in one way or another, account for a reasonable chunk of the family household, so I have to be nice.

   

That said, their software can be frustrating and don't get me started on Vista. However, praise where praise is due. Office 2007 doesn't suck as much as I thought it did. Ok, getting used to the Ribbon took a few minutes (but only a few) and actually most of it has turned out to be pretty intuitive once I stopped trying to find the ALT menus. The layout is clear and the new graphics pleasant to look at.

 

But what has impressed is places that have made me sit back from the keyboard and go, "Whoa! Dude. Cool." Well, maybe not, I'm English and from the home counties but you get the point.

 

The first WDC moment was when I found the OneNote tab in Outlook. Right Click on a calendar appointment in Outlook and it offers the option to go to OneNote. Selecting the option takes you to a prepared OneNote form ready for meeting minutes. Nice. Plus I've started to really get used to OneNote. It's a well thought out application that actually has moved me, to a certain extent away from the huge number of note books I used to use. It's increased my follow up productivity from Mobile World Congress a few thousand percent because I can cross reference my meeting Notes with contacts and add contact notes into OneNote and then put them in the client notes section on OneNote.

Nice.

 

Second: I was taking notes in meetings and clicked on the "Make Outlook Task" button. This didn't really work in OneNote 2003, but here – BANG – task appears in Outlook preformatted and including links to the original OneNote pages. Oh joy, where has that feature been all my life? Now I can rapidly and in meetings get the actions out to people from the same application.

 

The third happened a few minutes before writing this post. I was completing some notes and used Right Click on the notes to see if I could send to somebody by email (you can't, it's a Ribbon Button next to the Outlook task button) but I was given a "Blog This" option. So, I opened a new tab in my personal OneNote folders, clicked, was given the choice of my Blog Accounts and here it is.

 

Ohhh… and look, there's a little word count at the bottom of the screen. So here's to 500 words eh?

 

This might not be a shock to the Apple types out there, I understand from some Apple types I know that Office 2008 for Mac is seriously nice. Anyway, credit where credit is due. Office 2007 works. Kudos. Vista… well, there's always Service Pack 2…

Perpetual-Motion Machine

Perepiteia Perpetual-Motion Machine May Actually Do...Something

Er...  what can we say...

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Cheap Fusion?

Is cheap fusion power around the corner? | Samizdata.net

I'll admit that I'm not clear on this.  There are several Fusion options that occur at energy points which are easier to maintain, but the typically have had problems with the Nett energy equation that comes out of it.

There are some interesting links in the thread but I'm interested in any thoughts.

I was once told by somebody (Paul?) that when somebody starts talking about Fusion with no Neutrons they're missing the point.

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Infrequently Asked Questions

The Don calls it the way it is: Knuth: Infrequently Asked Questions

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Three Times, It's Enemy Action

BBC NEWS | Technology | New cable cut compounds net woes

This seems to be the fourth cable that has been cut in four days. Obviously something is going on. The rumours swirling about is that this could be the prelude to some big Israeli stunt or an attack on Iran - perhaps even an Israeli attack on Iran, which would make a lot of sense from the point of view of the US. I wonder though if this isn't just a case of straight forward economic blackmail. Stay tuned. 

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