Linklog Current StatusI remember, back in 2008, stepping out of Oxford Circus station and seeing that the Evening Standard news-stand had been updated. A sort of proto-Blade Runner makeover, sandwich boards replaced by updating monitor screens, electronic card payment. It struck me as a moment of overlap, newsprint and ubiquitous infotech, like that point in time that [...]
As I’ve pointed out previously: a good benchmark of a technology’s ease-of-use is whether you can use it while holding a conversation.
My normal mode is to complain about all software/hardware, but I thought I’d share a couple of examples where tasks could actually be completed mid-VOIP conversation.
“I need a good photo of myself – can [...]
Cities are public backlots. Cities aren’t galleries and museums, they house the physical locations of stories. And while many find the tales of history compelling, I’ll confess that it’s the city’s fictional narritives I find more attractive.
Paris, in my imagination, is shaped by movies like Diva, Nikita, and Amélie. I’ve recently made a few [...]
“There’s a tram coming towards you. Get on it.” - Bourne, The Bourne Supremacy.
It’s odd when you see a realistic depiction of computer interfaces in fiction. We’ve been primed to expect one of two different types.
The first is overly simple. Only things pertinent to the context of the computer use are displayed. The only actions [...]
I had a bit of an angry customer moment today. A public strop.
I needed to get an iTunes gift-card this weekend. I tried buying one at the train station’s newsagent.
The thing about these electronic gift-cards is that, even if you have the physical instantiation of the thing, they’re worthless before subjected to an [...]
If Iggy Pop is just the passenger, why is he the one sorting out the car insurance? Or indeed selling it. “I’m not selling insurance, I’m selling time.”
All of the insurance ads seem to be emphasising speed and convenience at the moment. One insurance comparison site sponsors “24″ on Sky, which is surely the pornography [...]
Oh, but the first few minutes of Babylon AD seem so promising.
Our hero awakes in a partially destroyed apartment, an ambitious DIY project apparently abandoned after initial demolitions. Plastic sheeting forming its notional walls. But beyond the collapsed appartment – a collapsed world. Tehran’s anti-America murals adorning an eastern European housing block.
Street markets hawking nothing [...]
I saw No Country for Old Men last night. It’s a good movie, certainly, but since it followed many of the rules of a typical genre action/chase/thriller. In that context, which you’ll understand if you’ve seen it, it’s ultimately unsatisfying.
One of the classic action genre moments is where character of Anton Chigurh performs self surgery using supplies [...]
I’ve just watched The Bourne Ultimatum. It’s an excellent action movie/travelogue, but not as all-round entertaining as, say, Die Hard 4.0 due to the utter lack of humour. Bourne’s been described as an “anti-James Bond” in some of the publicity interviews. Principally, because Bond, like anyone who works in a field dealing with [...]
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