Why don’t Americans[1] write down times in the same broken order that they use for dates? You say “ten past eleven”, so why isn’t that 10:11? [1] And that raises another question – why isn’t there a noun that means “people from the USA?”
Author: Dave Cross
Young People’s Travel
My stepdaughter needs to travel from home (zone 3) to college (zone 1) every day. As she’s 16 she is too old to get child rate fares on London Underground. Therefore we’ve bought her a monthly travelcard[1] which cost just under £90. Then last week she comes home with a form from London Transport which… Continue reading Young People’s Travel
Copy Controlled CDs Update
I seem to be building up quite a good working relationship with someone called Ken in BMG’s copy control customer support centre. I think he’s grateful that someone is actually giving them intelligent feedback rather than simply swearing at them :) I wrote to them last week pointing out that I was planning on buying… Continue reading Copy Controlled CDs Update
Dude, Where’s My Country
Michael Moore’s new book Dude, Where’s My Country is launched on Tuesday. Here’s the text of an email that Moore sent to his mailing list about the book. Amazon UK is currently showing it as number 2 in its best-sellers list.
Vampire
On Anna in Wonderland last night, Anna Nolan investigated groups of people in the UK who like to think they are vampires. It was all rather sad. There was Lucius (and I’m betting that’s not what her parents called her) who proudly showed off her filed teeth and her coffin. “So you sleep in that… Continue reading Vampire
It’s About Time
Bloody hell. Dr Who is coming back to TV. It won’t be on for a couple of years and there are about a million and one things that can go wrong before then and it’ll never be as good as it used to be. But it’s pretty exciting news all in all.
Missing Comics
On the way to the london.pm technical meeting last Thursday I stopped into Forbidden Planet and picked up some comics. The most important purchase was probably a copy of Neil Gaiman’s new Sandman[1] book Endless Nights. I also picked up copies of Gaiman’s 1602 and Joss Whedon’s Fray. Unfortunately because I don’t visit comic shops… Continue reading Missing Comics
Digital Copy Protection
I don’t download illegal music files from the Internet. I’ve found the ebook version of Data Munging with Perl on enough dodgy web sites to know how it feels to have your copyrighted material ripped off. I do, however, listen to music mostly at my computer and I have something like 40 Gb of digital… Continue reading Digital Copy Protection
Film Studies
My step-daughter has just started an A level course in flim studies. This means that I (hopefully) get a good excuse to buy lots of classic films on DVD. It also means that we get to have interesting discussions about films. Like this one from last night. Gill doesn’t like many Hollywood films. She thinks… Continue reading Film Studies
Grauniad
Oh look. It seems I have an interview for a job at the Guardian. I’m going in to see them tomorrow morning. Anyone know Nik Silver and can have a quiet word with him for me?