other world?

Sometimes everything clicks together well on a business trip abroad. This one has been like that, randomly spotting people I know (like three people I ran into at Heathrow) and then even a co-incidental arrival of someone in Stockholm so that we could share a cab into town.

Other times it can be wearisome, with delayed or lost bags and those accidents where someone forgets to set their alarm in the morning. So far, so good, though I have been using two separate alarms. Amusingly, when I mentioned this, two other regular travellers admitted to using two alarms on different phones and one said they used two alarms and the hotel television as well.

Reassuringly paranoid. My other fun thing was to notice that my hotel has my nationality listed as 'Other World'. Seems about right.

don't let the sun blast your shadow

Towards the end of last year I had some long working weeks, which then quietened down a few days before Christmas. Last week I was away for part of the time and also working with people in Texas, so things are getting lively again. I've spent several hours today at home engrossed in spreadsheets and various reports and then have another bunch of things to do Sunday before I head for the airport.

Then I'm off to Stockholm for a few days and as soon as I get back I've a fair amount of commitments to complete. The world spins back up to full speed quickly now after the end of year break and we've already had our 'launch session' and are getting back into the swing of things.

Different from some years when it could take a month or more to get fully organized.

So blogging will return to ten minutes per day, I suppose.

wide time

This is more about "Wide Time" than iPhones and Starbucks, but I think it illustrates the idea quite well. I consider that we can think about things over a long time and also over wide time.

Wide time is when there's lots of small things happening at once that together combine to make a set of bigger changes. Like looking back at a film from the 1980s. In theory its not that long ago, but there's so many incremental changes that everything looks sort of -er- different. Typewriters, big spectacles, payphones, small wheeled cars, large shoulders and so on.

So Phil Lu's idea to be able to remote order frappacinos is an illustration of the mental increments that create the effects making the wide time changes. Latte anyone?

Lakh, or judgement?

A cheap new car from the forecourt in the UK probably starts at around £6000 or $12000. A wheel at each corner, petrol driven, CD radio, basic wiggly mirrors, airbags, no air-con, manual winder windows, two doors and probably a hatchback shape.

So this Tata Nano just launched in India is an interesting development. £1,277, if you convert the 100,000 rupees (1 Lakh) to GBP. Add on UK tax etc and I suppose it would be about £1,800. Petrolheads say it would be closer to £4,000 by the time it got to the UK, because it would need air-con and a few other modifications, like wheel bearings that can survive over 45mph and I suppose emission control, airbags, a safety shell and maybe some welding of some of the glued parts might also be needed.

Its an interesting dilemma though. Making something which is supposed to cut down the number of full family scooter outings in India, by popping them into a car with a two stroke 33bhp engine. With the increase of the new middle class in India, the transition from scooter to car is the next thing. But there's still the gap between those in families who have some form of foreign funded job (eg in the world of outsourcing) estimated at some 200 million and the other 800 million people who survive on less than 50 pence per day. Seven cars per thousand people in India, 480 in USA and 370 here in UK.

So if Tata and Bajaj (who make the Indian scooters) start pushing out Bosch-engined, non-emission managed cars for 100,000 rupees, there's going to be all kinds of knock-on effects framed in terms of the low carbon agenda, safety, crime and traffic management. Transformational - yes - unintended consequences? we shall see.

Meantime, rashbre central's motor fleet shall continue to feature a Ford Ka.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, tata, nano, car, india, small, lakh, ka, smart, carbon, traffic, bajaj,

moving wallpaper

I've just been reading 'The Gum Thief' by Douglas Coupland. My version has the pretend novel 'Glove Pond' with it, which is written by one of the characters in the Staples store where the main novel is set. Its a clever idea wrapping a fiction inside a fiction (Midsummer Night's Dream, anyone?) and the new television drama by the folk who produced 'Life on Mars' does the same thing.

First there is a television episode about the writing of a creaking generic TV soap set in Cornwall stuffed with stock characters and a plot-line as wobbly as the set walls. The beleaguered producer decides to go after every populist drama award category in a series of tick the box episodes of a made-over version of the soap, where the ratings demographic is based upon the views of a single twenty-something female office assistant.

And then there's the show itself, renamed from Polsomething to Echo Beach now with supersaturated yellow sunny beaches and retro VW camper vans against a backdrop of hyper-fit surfers. Stilted acting reminiscent of old school soap, real soap star cameos and the money from the soundstages diverted to the producer's office furnishings.

I watched this entertaining pair of programmes thinking it was a two parter - I've just noticed they are implying a full series. It will be interesting to see whether the running joke can survive.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, soap, moving, wallpaper, echo, beach, echobeach, life+on+mars,

frontier dressing

My previous post about Apple might be a bit space aged for some, so I thought I'd turn briefly to the business section for other news.

Today's launch (no pun) of the new IS3C space suit from Orbital Outfitters caught my eye. I suppose the high visibility colour has something to do with it. I'm intrigued that for something so 'high tech' it looks a little bit like something one would make for a carnival procession. I'm told these can be hired though, which I suppose implies a great deal of confidence from the providers that they will be used for two way trips.

In true wild west frontiers terms, the main action around space travel is in the 'new space' sector of business, but its notable that some of the early companies like Alliant Techsystems (NYSE: ATK) seem to be providing capabilities which have sort of defence related implications.

I suppose its best to be safe up there.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, orbital, outfitters, space, suits, IS3C, new+space, newspace

apple predictions 2008

azerty is a slight giveaway this ain't American, comme-ci, comme ça
Apple sent me their announcement about the new Mac Pro in Japanese. It was still surprisingly readable, considering the language differences. rashbre central is made on a mac, so if that Japanese thing is a pre Mac World announcement, what else have they got up their kimonos for next week's show?

Just for fun, my Thursday Thirteen guesses/suggestions:

1. Mac movie Rentals - iView? obviously as a new revenue model
2. Mac touch tablet device based on iPhone -iTablet? -iSlice?
3. iPhone update 16Gb and 32GB
4. iTV with blue ray inc DVD recorder/improved media center/Mac mini integration (just like I've already done)
5. OLED (touch) cinema screen
6. Glass reconfigurable keyboard using iPhone technology (maybe not)
7. Aluminium keyboard with touch area -or alu mouse
8. Sundry speed bumps and thinning of form factors
9. Matt screens for the iMacs (please) - unless the iMacs go touch sensitive
10. more slave technology to let one device run another (e.g.) iPhone runs a mac?
11. iMovie2 is as good as iMovie HD was
12. iGames - for the iPhone including Nintendo tie-in
13. firmware upgrade for iPhone to shoot video and support .mac

Any other ideas?

Technorati Tags: rashbre, apple, mac, secrets, predictions, macworld, 2008, ipod, iphone, iTV, iTouch, leopard, mac+pro, pro, tablet, OLED, cinema, display, kimono, rumours, rumors, blog, leaks, gadgets, engadget,

safe handling of alien objects

For whatever reason, I've been getting searches about alien objects recently. I thought I'd make it easier to find some sensible guidelines. Shields down, warp to Sector 5,3 and easy on the parsecs.

john peel sessions

I noticed that the BBC has put a fair number of John Peel Sessions on line now, although the ones from the late 1990s and into the 2000s seem to be track listings only without actual tracks to play.

I've picked a few live track extracts available for some of the well known bands, just as an example of the type of material available. Certainly worth a look and a listen. Every so often the BBC seem to isue a complete CD of one of the sessions.

billy bragg cat power david bowie faces jimi hendrix nirvana pj harvey pink floyd pulp t.rex top 125 gigs

rana picada - dadaist rock

It seems ages since I partook of chocolate and vodka, so I thought I'd sip this evening and yippee - a meme from WhatIFoundThere, the Dadaist rock band album cover meme:

Instructions:

1. The first article title on the Wikipedia Random Articles page is the name of your band.

2. The last four words of the very last quotation on the Random Quotations page is the title of your album.

3. The third picture in Flickr's Interesting Photos From The Last 7 Days any nice appropriately Creative Commons licensed photo will be your album cover.

4. Use your graphics programme of choice to throw them together, and post the result.

So, although I've broken the rules very slightly by using two pix together (thank you Mc Beth and Beautification Syndrome - the pix were too good to choose between. I suppose I'd better make some genre specific tracks so that its like a proper CD.

Track 3 : memetic eight
Track 5 : higher fire distortion (tx christina x)
Track 7 : ring modulation psychotic dadaism

So c'mon budding cover art designers - give it a try!

frog robin plumber season

Back to normality this week. Whatever that means.

I'm admiring the Spring-like sunshine out of the window today whilst working from home, and also knowing that half an hour ago there was a kind of sleety-snow drifting around in a rather grey sky. Now its sunny-bright and the robin is oscillating between the fence, table and wall again, which I believe is its way of showing territory.

And rashbre central has been noisy today, with earlier busy cleaning sounds to ensure the needles from the tree disappear from the carpet and right now the gentle tap-tap of Mark the plumber who is fixing various taps and pipes in between discussing rainforest frogs and ways to make an environmental difference.

I'm mainly 'heads down' on an assignment, and then later in the week disappear back into the world of hotel meetings before catching my first flight of the year at the weekend.

paths

I dismantled the christmas tree today, all the dex are ready to be boxed for next year and the lights have been tangled into a carrier bag as a time delay for the next season. It's my last excuse to post pictures of illuminations but also a point for reflection.

I'd decided not to set up lists of resolutions to break by next week, but I think the picture provides some thoughts.

Firstly, it was taken whilst fooling in great company on the way to some revelry during the festive season. There's an obvious path leading forward, but there's also a lot of semi hidden side turnings, which could be worth exploration. There's some bright sparkly lights, places to sit and muse, some signage which could provide clues and an array of possibilities in the various windows, with only one apparently shuttered view.

I hope its a good metaphor for 2008.

I'm also going to add the 'strangers' clicky to rashbre central which I spotted at elby's, as a way to branch from the main route (not just in blogworld).

But for now, its time to reset everything for another exciting year.

Technorati Tags: rashbre, new+year, 2008, resolutions, strangers, sparkly,