Google delivers more creepy technology

Fancy being able to get someone's contact details from their photo? How would you feel about someone else grabbing your details from a random photo? No, I don't like the sound of that either - it's creepy and invasive.

What the hell are Google playing at? Isn't there someone in their company saying "hold on chaps, this idea probably isn't a good one"? 

Google Snaps Your Face, Pulls Up Your Profile With New App
http://mashable.com/2011/03/31/google-face-recognition-app/

Posted via email from James's posterous

Walking in Dulwich Park

Nice sunny day for a walk in the park.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Posted via email from James's posterous

Mad American Cathedral

Hat-tip to Nick for this tip. Have a look at http://www.evangelcathedral.net/ for the most eye-watering use of Flash ever. Don't skip the intro, it's worth seeing the whole gruesome thing.

Oh, and in case you were wondering if it might be a hoax, check it out on Google Maps. It looks like you can only reach it by car - so much for being part of the community; if you can't afford to drive, you can't go to Church.

Posted via email from James's posterous

Photos of the Houses of Parliament

On Friday, because it was a nice sunny morning, I swung past the House of Parliament and took a few photos on my way to work. Here they are.

See the full gallery on Posterous

Posted via email from James's posterous

The Noyes Machine

The Macalope. Always entertaining.

http://www.macworld.com/article/158849/2011/03/macalope_noyes.html

Posted via email from James's posterous

Religious blame climate change - not sin - for natural disasters

It's not all good news. Here's a clip from the report:

"Seven in 10 Americans see God as an entity with whom one can have a personal relationship. And 56 percent say God is in control of everything that happens. Yet the survey found only 38 percent believe natural disasters are a message from God. Only 29 percent believe such calamities are punishment for sins."

How can 29% of the US population believe that natural disasters are punishments from God for the sins of the countries they afflict? If the survey is accurate it would suggest that America has serious problems with her education system. Let's hope they are able to sort out their problems because the prospect of the World's most powerful military being directed by people who think a fictional God is directing earthquakes and tsunamis to punish our sins is not one any of us is likely to welcome.

Survey: Religious blame climate change - not sin - for natural disasters - The Denver Post
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_17692275

Posted via email from James's posterous

UK space given boost from Budget

The Chancellor George Osborne has promised regulatory change and some extra money to help boost the competitiveness of the UK space sector, which is growing at about 10% a year.

via bbc.co.uk

£10m doesn't go very far in an industry worth £7.5bn a year but maybe it's a sign that the Government hasn't completely abandoned British science, technology and industry. Or maybe I'm just grasping at straws, desperately trying to find a bit of good news to write about. Either way, the extra funding for science (£100m in total) is welcome.

Posted via email from James's posterous

Never letting the source spoil a good story

One of my weaknesses is that I tend to get a bit shouty about things like scientific accuracy and the deliberate misrepresentation of evidence or research but I haven't always been this way (I think - others may disagree). At first I just became a little frustrated by inconsistencies or inaccuracies in films or by the ridiculous claims of politicians. Later, I noticed that newspaper reports were often less than entirely accurate and now, I'm afraid to say, even TV adverts (particularly those that claim things like "80% of women felt their skin had become firmer" from a sample size of 125) annoy me. 

I have some coping strategies; I don't read newspapers very much, I (almost) completely suspend disbelief when watching CSI and I vent my frustration occasionally via my blog rather than at the wife or anyone else who happens to be nearby (normally - sometimes it's impossible to resist pointing out blatant stupidity). 

All of these things help but they do not eradicate the underlying problem. It is nice, therefore, to find someone like Ben Goldacre publishing articles highlighting exactly the sorts of problems that I find annoying and suggesting improvements and solutions. His article in yesterday's Guardian identifies several recent reports where journalists (or their editors) misrepresented the facts,  apparently to "improve" the story.

Ben's basic solution is to encourage reporters to provide links to their sources, which is easy to do on the web, especially if the story is based on a scientific paper or press release (these documents tend to be published online, making linking trivially easy). Most people wouldn't bother to read the background information, of course, but some of us would and it would help to promote accurate reporting. Where links to sources are not provided, consider this advice from Dr Goldacre:

"But more than anything, because linking to sources is such an easy thing to do and the motivations for avoiding links are so dubious, I've detected myself using a new rule of thumb: if you don't link to primary sources, I just don't trust you."

Check it out.

Never letting the source spoil a good story
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/mar/19/bad-science-ben-goldacre?CMP=twt_gu

Posted via email from James's posterous

iPad 2 Review

I want one, I really do, and I especially appreciate a review with a Conan reference:

"The iPad 2 has crushed its enemies, seen the other tablets driven before it, and heard the lamentations of their product managers."

http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/4396870-452/review-ipad-2-is-not-revolutionary---but-it-is-great.html

Great stuff. 

Posted via email from James's posterous

Perspective on Radiation

I hadn't realised that eating a banana could be so dangerous...

Posted via email from James's posterous

Japan nuclear threat: The tsunami is the bigger tragedy

The BBC have an interesting article about the risk posed by Japan's nuclear problems. It's nice to see a balanced, calm and rational report amongst the rubbish being pushed by some parts of the media. Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12785274

Posted via email from James's posterous

Human Population Growth

Here's a graph showing the population growth over the last 11,000 years.

From John Baez's blog.

I don't really have much to say about this but I thought it was an interesting bit of work that was worth sharing.

Posted via email from James's posterous

Nuclear Meltdown? Get the Facts Here

Here's an article explaining what's going on in Japan's nuclear power plants. Bad, maybe, but not catastrophic.

Fukushima update: cracked fuel rods threaten meltdown
http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/shortsharpscience/2011/03/japan-megaquake-update.html

Posted via email from James's posterous

A Delicious Pinboard

I followed a link on Daring Fireball to a bookmarking site called Pinboard, a bookmark aggregation site. I wasn't really interested in the site but the blog entry was interesting so I had a poke around. The page of upcoming features includes an entry near the bottom that made me chuckle, especially after reading the post about Delicious:

Get acquired by Yahoo and slowly grow useless

I guess you had to be there.

Posted via email from James's posterous

Firefox 4: What You Need To Know

I stopped using Firefox when Chrome launched and I haven't really been tempted to go back until, this morning, I saw the video demonstration of the new Panorama feature for managing tabs (see link below). It's a bit geeky (and probably suggests borderline OCD tendencies) but I quite like the look of it. 

I still use IE at work because it plays nicely with SharePoint and Office but, for everyone else, Firefox 4 just became my new browser of choice.

Firefox 4: What You Need To Know
http://mashable.com/2011/03/10/firefox-4-guide/

Posted via email from James's posterous

Japan gets free wi-fi from FON until quake emergency ends

My experiences with FON (through a neighbour's BT hub) haven't been all that good (service is slow, unreliable and often unavailable) but I like to see companies helping out when disaster strikes and it definitely makes me think better of them. 

Japan gets free wi-fi from FON until quake emergency ends
http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/11/fon-wifi-hotspot-free-japan/

Posted via email from James's posterous

Star Wars and Lego

Have a look at Avanaut's Flickr stream for more like this:

I suspect he is obsessed with Lego, Star Wars and photography (not necessarily in that order).

Posted via email from James's posterous

Must-have Gadget

I'm not going to get an iPad 2 (I think the wife might complain) but what about this little baby if you, like me, are suffering from New Gadget Withdrawal?

http://www.keyboardco.com/keyboard_details.asp?PRODUCT=576

Posted via email from James's posterous

iOS 4.3 Now Out

Downloading now. Updates include:

• Personal Hotspot*

  - Share iPhone 4 mobile data connection with up to 5 

     devices (combination of up to 3 Wi-Fi, 3 Bluetooth, 

     and 1 USB)

• iTunes Home Sharing

  - Play music, films and TV shows from a shared iTunes 

     library on a Mac or PC (requires iTunes 10.2)

• New AirPlay features**

  - Play videos from the Photos app including the Camera 

     Roll album, iTunes previews, enabled third-party apps 

     and websites on Apple TV

  - Play slideshows from Photos on Apple TV using 

     transitions available on Apple TV

• Faster Safari performance with Apple Nitro JavaScript

   engine

• HD video out using the Apple Digital AV Adapter***

  - View 720p HD videos from Videos app, iPod app, 

     Photos, YouTube, Safari, Keynote and enabled 

     third-party apps on an HDMI display

• Ping features

  - Push notifications for comments and follow requests

  - Post and Like songs directly from the Now Playing 

     screen

  - Parental controls

• New Settings

  - Messages setting for number of times to repeat an 

     alert

  - iPad side switch setting to lock screen rotation or mute

     audio notifications and sound effects

• Single-tap conference-call dialling with a pause to send

   a passcode

• Bug fixes

Products compatible with this software update:

• iPhone 4 (GSM model)

• iPhone 3GS

• iPad

• iPod touch (4th generation)

• iPod touch (3rd generation)

*Requires iPhone 4 with tethering data plan

**Requires Apple TV (2nd generation) running software 

   version 4.2 or later

***iPhone 4, iPad, iPod touch (4th generation)

Posted via email from James's posterous

Broadband is in!

At last, we have a broadband connection at home and everything is right in the world.

Posted via email from James's posterous

Sun Rising Over Peckham Rye

A frosty morning in South London but the Rye looks good.

Posted via email from James's posterous

Famous Scenes, Obscured - Part I

Piccadilly Circus, seen through the number 12 bus. First in a series of poorly composed shots of famous scenes.

Posted via email from James's posterous

The view from John Lewis

Actually it's the view from the coffee shop of John Lewis, looking north over Cavendish Square, along Harley St to Regent's Park. Very nice.

Posted via email from James's posterous

Can't help getting a bit excited...

...because we should have broadband, finally, on Tuesday. The provider has shipped our router and taken payment so it's looking good but there's still plenty of time for something simple and straightforward to go horribly, irretrievably, wrong. What will I do when I finally have broadband? I've been making a list:

• Update operating systems and applications on our computers
• Update the maps on the sat nav
• Get the Apple TV online and working with our home network
• Install the home network, probably with an 8-port switch somewhere (need to think about that a bit, then buy one)
• Upload some pictures
• Download some films and TV shows that we have waiting on iTunes
• Activate some films and TV shows that we've previously downloaded but can't watch until they've been "verified"
• Maybe play a couple of games
• Check on the banking and shopping

And numerous other things I'll probably think of in the next couple of days, assuming that the service works on Tuesday. Big assumption, given our recent history with telecommunications. 

Posted via email from James's posterous

May Day bank holiday plans unveiled

Is this really a priority? Can our ministers not find something more useful to work on? I've got a few suggestions, I they need help. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12640636

Posted via email from James's posterous

Android Malware - it's all a bit scary

If you're thinking of buying an Android phone and downloading apps from Google's store, take a look at this:

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/03/01/the-mother-of-all-android-malware-has...

Do you still want to buy Android?

Posted via email from James's posterous

Nonsensical Advertising, Part II

This is the front of the Back to Eden hair salon on Walworth Road. What, exactly, is a "Natural Hair & Scalp Clinic"? Do they have a philosophical objection to "unnatural hair", I wonder, or is there a deeper, more sinister secret lurking behind an apparently innocent shopfront? Strange.

Posted via email from James's posterous