Adactio: Journal—October, 2001

Bairin Breac

A quick update to my previous entry: I found a recipe for that cake.

Squier P-Bass Special

There’s nothing quite like getting a new and better musical instrument (except maybe getting a new and better computer).

Ireland

Jessica and I went to Ireland earlier this year. We spent most of the time in my hometown of Cobh.

A brush with fame

Chris (my upstairs neighbour and bandmate) had an interesting encounter this morning.

Robohouse

Hmm… apparently I’m "Number 5, Goofy robot with life from Short Circuit".

Residence permits and Mac OS X

Today was a good mail day.

Grand Drive

Wednesday is band practice day. It went well today although it was a little short - two hours instead of the usual three.

Apple - iPod

About a week ago, Apple started circulating the news that they were about to release a groundbreaking new product (and it wouldn’t be a Mac).

The Mirror Project | Jeremy Keith | After Dinner

Jessica and I had dinner with Chris and Karin upstairs last night. Jessica cooked up some nice roast vegetables to go with the delicious kaese spaetzle that Karin made.

Oct. 11-12, 2001 Aurora Gallery

Here’s some eyecandy for you: Aurora Borealis on the nights of October 11th and 12th.

Multiculturalism vs. feminism

The situation in Afghanistan has highlighted something of a dilemma for the liberal left - a group I would usually consider myself a part of.

Macromedia claims it owns Adobe patent

This is going from the ridiculous to the sublime.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2001

I was in the post office a few days ago to get a stamp. I needed to send a card to the States which costs 65p.

harrumph!

Heather Champ and Aaron Straup Cope rule!

United States Patent: 6,304,886

This is the latest in a long line of ridiculously ludicrous software patents.

The Mirror Project

If you’re a regular visitor here, then you’ll probably have noticed something new on the journal page - a random picture from The Mirror Project.

Memories of Maryland

For your viewing pleasure: a gallery of photos from Maryland.

MSN Tech Support

There has been a discussion lately on the Webdesign-L mailing list about the sorry state of customer support these days.

A Call to the Muslims of the World

This is a difficult time for Muslims. How do you seperate your religion from the acts committed in its name?

The roots of conflict

Here’s some more grist for the fundamentalist mill.

Falwell-Robertson-Bin Laden Quiz

This is too perfect.

The principles of free (usually democratic) societies are *inclusive* in nature: different faiths, different lifestyles, different value systems coexisting in relative peace. There is generally a seperation of Church and State, as well as freedom of speec

Apple - W3C Statement

This is very good news indeed.

240 Miles Up, Seeing Tragedy

There have been a lot of eyewitness accounts of the events of September 11th posted on the web but this has to be the most unusual:

Dan Brown

All that talk of Baltimore has prompted me to do something I’ve meaning to do for a while. I want to direct your attention to the website of my best buddy in Baltimore, Daniel Brown.

The Science Behind the Song Stuck in Your Head

A bouzouki playing researcher (the best kind) is investigating the phenomenon of "cognitive itch". You know: when a song gets completely stuck in your head.

New skin for an old ceremony

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you a brand new skin to wrap around the Adactio website. I give you:

Searching for the Biological Roots of Consciousness

Apple have posted up an article about a fellow named Christof Koch.

New gallery

Two days ago we had very, very windy weather here in Brighton. It whipped the sea up into an impressive cauldron of loud, crashing waves.

Bert and Osama.

You know those posters of Osama Bin Laden that protesters in Bangladesh are waving? Well, the collage of pictures of Bin Laden are culled from many sources including the internet.

American oriole wings its way across Atlantic to Baltimore, Ireland

I remember reading through the Encycolepdia Brittanica as a kid in Ireland and reading that the world’s biggest aquarium was in Baltimore.

The Effects of September 11 on the Leading Search Engine

First Monday have posted an article about how Google responded to the September 11th attacks.

Impress women with Perl

This is just about the cutest story I’ve come across in quite a while. Apparently, the way to a woman’s heart is through Perl.

The Ig Nobel Prize Winners

The envelope please…

The Turing Test

It’s Saturday. That means it’s Guardian reading day.

What Apple Should Do to Increase Marketshare

Here’s an interesting little piece that could put one of those cartoon lightbulbs above Steve Jobs’ head.

Biomorph breeder

Talking about The Blind Watchmaker reminded me of one of the things that’s so fascinating in the book.

First Language Gene Found

Good news for Noam Chomsky. Scientists in England claim to have isolated a gene directly related to language.

National Poetry Day

Today is National Poetry Day in Britain.

Yahoo! Racism!

Prompted by an article written by Derek Powazek at Design For Community, I wrote the following email to Yahoo!’s customer care department:

The two extremes

Since September 11th, I have been voraciously reading news sites, personal weblogs and any other kind of commentary I can find on the web.

My words to the W3C

Here’s the email I wrote to the W3C about the proposed change in licencing practices.

Making Sense of RAND

For anyone who’s confused about the proposed changes at the W3C (and let’s face, the W3C isn’t known for its snappy writing), here’s a handy little article that sums up the issues.

Berners-Lee Says Patents Obstruct An Open Web

More news on yesterday’s post about the W3C and patents.

Tony comes to Brighton

Tony Blair was in Brighton today for the Labour party conference. Here’s the full text of his speech. It’s pretty stirring stuff although mentioning Europe right now smacks a little of opportunism. Overall, a good speech from a great speaker.

The W3C Patent Policy

The World Wide Web Consortium has come under a lot of fire recently for burying a proposal that would allow its recommendations to be released under a fee-paying licence.

Trillion-atom triumph

Nature magazine has an an article about entangling matter on a subatomic scale. Scientists in Denmark have made a breakthrough in the scale of the entanglements.

Whaddya think?

So, here’s the newly relaunched Adactio site. I hope you like it.

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