Inmos

Contact Claire DOT Maudsley AT clairejayne.co.uk

Stuck with texting and the "Less Than Free Business Model"

We are living in very interesting times as far as arrival of the personal computer/communicator goes. I'm not sure we Europeans really get what is happening as we "stuck on texting" as Robert Scoble has observed. In a July posting he said:

But here’s where my own observations in London’s tube (the subway system here) come in: the UK is stuck on texting. That’s all I see most people do with their phones.

That rut that Europeans are stuck in is going to doom them.

Nokia simply does not understand how important the Web is and it’s because they ride the same subways and see the same behaviours.

"Text-blindness" may also keep us from seeing what happens next. In a very interesting blog post Bill Gurley looks at the disruptive influence of Google on the "turn-by-turn" mapping business. Google not only uncut the incumbents, they reduce the price to below zero. Yes, if you build a phone and put Android on it (and hence gain the ability to use their navigation software) they pay you - the phone manufacturer - to use the software. How? Advertising. Who'd use Symbian - even if if were free?

And who'd bet against something similar happening in desktops, notebooks, tablets, .... At least Apple will be left with hardware to design and sell. Unlike Microsoft.

http://www.openupnow.org/

RepRap

I visted UWE this evening to attend a talk given by Adrian Bowyer of the University of Bath on the RepRap project. RepRap is a project to build a self-replicating rapid-prototyper. His talk was excellent and when he'd finished he gave a demonstration of "Mendal" the RepRap Version II. Although not yet complete - Mendal is due to grow multiple, interchangeable printing heads - Adrian was able to show the device printing a coat-hook (visible in the photograph).

I think 3D-printing is a very interesting technology; we're at the early stages of personal 3D-printers at the moment and who knows how this will develop.

Skype scam

Skype messaging seems to be the source of much spam. Normally, women offering fleshly delights (or so they hint). But today I got my firm Nigerian scan:

[12:46:48] godtime_jamise.ab: Good day,

Please I crave your indulgence in reading through my mail to understand my predicaments. My names are jamise Abbas, i am a Sudanese by nationality but presently i live in Accra Ghana with my mother and my kid sister as refugees, since the political crisis in our country Sudan that took the life of my father who was a wealthy business man and a opposition politician to the present regime in our beloved country Sudan.

The main reason why I am contacting you now is to seek your assistance in the area of my future investment and also for a helping hand over some huge amount of money my late father deposited for me as next of kin. This money amount to ($12.750, 000, 00 USD) Twelve Million Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand United State Dollars only, my late father deposited for me here in Eco Bank Ghana Limited some years ago.

Since we escaped here to Accra after the death of my father, I have contacted the concern Managements of the Bank so many times but what they told me was due to our refugee status they will not release the fund to me,that I should present a foreign partner or a company to stand on my behalf for the transfer since then we are in search of a foreign partner to help us retrieve the money from the Bank and also help us relocate to your country and invest in real estates. Please help us stand as my foreign partner to make this transfer to you and in time of the investment and we can come and live with you. We are ready to give you 30% for your assistance.

Thanks and God bless you,

jamise Abbas.

You can contact me via my private email:jamiseabbas@hotmail.com

Great Literary Works

I went to Leigh Woods on my bike today. The weather was wonderful - late September sunshine and a perfect temperature for cycling. The conditions in the woods were good too - very little mud so no need for a three hour bike clean after a two hour bike ride.

I think Leigh Woods must have been the inspiration behind a couple of literary ideas.

The first - chronologically - is the original Adventure game. In Leigh Woods you move from a maze of little twisty passages into a maze of twisty little passages, and the only way you can tell where you are is by spotting things you dropped previously.

The second is the staircase at Hogwarts in the Harry Potter stories(Author J K Rowling was brought up not far from Leigh Woods). You may recell that the staircases move about. Well, so do the trails in Leigh Woods. It's different every time and some of the most interesting parts are very good at hiding. It's months since I've encountered The Wall of Death.

In an alternative universe

Maybe I'm becoming an Apple fanboy too late....

It's not time to make a change...

One of the enjoyable things about being on holiday was having the time to listen to some of the podcasts I had stacked up. I was more than pleased I managed to catch Coverville 599 "The Cat Stevens Cover Story". It was very timely; the BBC had recently broadcast some Cat Stevens / Yusuf Islam material recently, probably prompted by 50 (?) years of Island Records celebrations.

It's hard but it's harder to ignore it

I remember buying and listening to "Tea for the Tillerman" when I was in my late teens - I'd play "Father and Son" over and over and over again. Never mind the sentiments, the arrangement is wonderful - especially the verse where the father sons are both singing. I think - although I'm not sure - the original recording has Cat Stevens singing both parts. The BBC's archive recording (Old Grey Whistle Test?) shows Cat Stevens playing the song with another guitarist (who's name escapes me at the moment) and they sing that verse together,

You're still young.... that's your fault

Until I saw the BBC's program I hadn't realised what a superstar Cat Stevens was in the 60s. I remember songs like "Lady D'Abanville" and "The First Cut Is The Deepest" I don't remember Cat Stevens as a celebrity - in fact, I'm sure that I didn't know that Cat Stevens had written "First Cut@ until Rod Stewart recorded the song. I think it was brought home to me when I watched a documentary about Island Records where he explained how wonderful it was to escape fame and to have the space to write and produce his music.

For you will still be here tomorrow but your dreams may not...

After years away from the music scene Yusuf Islam has reemerged. The Coverville podcast has a version of "Father and Son" by Ronan Keating "featuring Yusuf". I'm afraid it's not up to the original, nor more relevantly, up to the performance that Yusuf gives on a BBC recording of one of his recent concerts. I watched the programme minutes after I watched the BBC's archive recording. Yusuf played several of Cat's greatest hits including "Father and Son". Very interesting, the generational thing was underwritten by his referring to his granddaughter, and the arrangement was just like the original. Indeed, I was struck by the likeness of his collaborator to the guitarist who had played alongside him 35 years previously - indeed the same man. A great experience to witness but not as good as the archive materal; better than Ronan though. (Ronan's recording is severely let down by an arrangement which substitutes a rather nasty sounding synthtrument in place of a guitar in the original.

Away, I know I have to go...

Returning to Coverville 599. Brian Ibott has chosen very interesting tracks. Two of them have personal interest - the other one being "Sad Lisa" by "Naked Eyes" who featuring the late Rob Fisher who was a university friend of a friend. Mind you, I could without Ellen Greene's "Morning Has Broken" - I sang it better when I was at school.