Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

  • Er, Hello?

    So there is an article in yesterday’s FT which is about the ambitions of the folks in Google; where they want to take it. And I read this:
    Asked how Google might look in five years’ time, Mr Schmidt said: “We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation.
     
    “The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow?’ and ‘What job shall I take?’ ”
    I’m sorry, but if the day ever dawns when I shall ask a fucking computer service "what shall I do tomorrow?" and "what job shall I take", then that is the time for me to depart this life. I swear, I sometimes think that the pod people are already amongst us. Doubtless, because it’s someone from Google saying this tripe, then others will think it is marvellous. Equally doubtless, had it been someone from Microsoft saying it, then the very same people would be first in line to denounce it for the crap that it is.  

    2 responses to “Er, Hello?”

    1. Andy Avatar
      Andy

      Absolutely.  And they pay this guy how much?!?

      Reply
    2. Brian Avatar
      Brian

      Cool!  Like having a magic 8-ball!  Imagine never having to ask "so whaddya want for dinner?" ever again!  just google it!

      Reply

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  • One Less Tourist Destination

    I admit that Pakistan was never very high on my list of places to visit before I die, but news that the Minister for Tourism has offered her resignation because she hugged her elderly instructor after completing a parachute jump for charity is reason enough to strike it off.
     
    There’s a serious message behind this, as Ophelia quite rightly opines:
    So petty tyrannical spiteful controlling interfering clerics get their way and yet another woman is prevented from working, living her life, having ordinary grown-up interactions, having fun, expressing joy and exuberance. The world is made just a little safer for narrowness and deprivation and general nothingness. 

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  • Dell Tablet PC

    I see that Dell have announced that they will be introducing a Tablet PC later this year. At the link you can watch a video of a Dell Senior VP, Jeff Clarke, talking about it. I’ve often thought that the next machine I invest in should be a Tablet PC. The idea of the ultra-portable form factor with the ability to use it as a notepad and pen has a certain appeal. Much more convenient than a laptop, I’ve always thought. To date, though, PC manufacturers have not positioned their Tablet offerings at the consumer market, but at the corporate market instead. With Dell finally throwing their hat into the Tablet PC ring, I thought there was a chance for a new dawn. Alas, I noted that Clarke said:
    "it is designed for the education, health care, and corporate marketplace".
    In other words, it ain’t going to be a consumer device, just another higher-priced corporate offering. And that, I think, is a shame. I would really like to see a major manufacturer position a Tablet PC fairly and squarely at the consumer market. I think it would open up a new niche and bring some competition in. Dell would have been my bet to do this. But it looks as though they’re not ready to step up to the plate.

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  • Climate Change – Myths and Misconceptions

    I see that NewScientist has published a handy-dandy guide to the 26 most common myths and misconceptions about Climate Change. Very useful.

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  • Perfect What?

    I’m sorry, I think my jaw has just hit the table and my brains have dropped out. Perfect Petzzz? Alright, I know that I had a hankering for an Aibo – but that was ironical, OK? Somehow, I don’t think irony enters into this. I think that everyone (including Tom and Katie) are deadly, deadly serious. That’s the point at which I want the cockroaches to take over. We’ve clearly lost our minds.

    2 responses to “Perfect What?”

    1. Gelert Avatar
      Gelert

      kinda sad, and such a comment on life today.

      Reply
    2. Geoff Avatar
      Geoff

      Yup, it wouldn’t surprise me if the world of Aldiss’ Super-Toys Last All Summer Long comes upon us. Part of the motivation of the Japanese fascination with humanoid robots is apparently with an eye on the market for companions for the elderly – shades of Bradbury’s title story from I Sing The Body Electric…

      Reply

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  • The What?

    No comment. Somehow Easter eggs seem a trifle more innocent.

    2 responses to “The What?”

    1. Gelert Avatar
      Gelert

      Ohh, and such a pretty little box too!  I just about busted a gut laughing at this. What worries me most is, was it cast from a real butt? If so, whose? I demand to know. I may have to pinch this for my blog – the world needs to know in time for easter.

      Reply
    2. Brian Avatar
      Brian

      For the proctologist who has everything

      Reply

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  • Bye Bye…

    Hilzoy, over at Obsidian Wings, writes what is probably the perfect summing-up of the Paul Wolfowitz debacle at the World Bank.

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  • A Double Life

    I mentioned, back in February, that a new biography of Alice B. Sheldon had been published. I’ve just finished it, and can heartily recommend it. Alice Sheldon/James Tiptree Jr. has found a most sensitive biographer in Julie Phillips, and James Tiptree, Jr. is a triumph of the biographer’s art. Very, very good indeed.
     
    I see, from the dustjacket blurb, that Julie Phillips may be living in Amsterdam at the moment. Here’s an interview with her from last year that confirms it. Perhaps I may even bump into her one day and be able to say in person that her biography of the human known as Alice/James/Racoona was simply stunning.

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  • A Day Out

    We went for a day out yesterday with two friends. They took us first to the vantage point known as the Posbank in the Dutch National Park of the Veluwezoom, and then we went on to visit the grounds of Kasteel Rosendael (Rosendael Castle).
     
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    There’s been a castle on this spot in Rozendaal since the 14th century, but it was in the early 18th century when the grounds, the formal gardens and fountains were landscaped and built.
     
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    The most famous fountains are the "bedriegertjes" (little tricks). Everybody, except me of course, knew about them. The guide was telling our small party about the origins of the fountains and their shell sculptures.
     
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    Meanwhile, I was busy trying to take an arty shot of the castle framed by one of the small fountains.
     
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    And naturally, while I was crouching down taking the photo, the guide revealed the bedriegertjes "surprise". She threw a lever which diverts the water from the main jets to a set of hidden jets placed in the tiled surround. The entire area becomes a fountain – including the part where I was crouching. Much merriment from the rest of the party, who had retired to a safe distance. My, did I laugh. Not.
     
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    And then, to add insult to injury, she turned off the hidden jets, waved me across to join the rest of the party and, as I stepped onto the tiled area, threw the lever again. As you can imagine, I was most amused. Tee-hee. I studiously ignored her for the rest of the tour and contented myself by taking photos.
     
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    3 responses to “A Day Out”

    1. Gelert Avatar
      Gelert

      and always such beautiful photos. It’s so rewarding to provide amusement for your fellows isn’t it. I went out with the team from my new job last thurs. and slipped up on the bowling alley – I did a Tom and Jerry running in space before landing on my arse. I turned to find them in stitches and taking photos of me. Thanks guys.

      Reply
    2. Brian Avatar
      Brian

      I wanna see them photos!!!

      Reply
    3. Geoff Avatar
      Geoff

      Me too…

      Reply

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  • The Nature of the Infection

    Neil Gaiman has reposted a terrific article called "The Nature of the Infection" on his blog. It’s about how ideas influence us in a viral fashion. For him, Dr Who has been a huge influence on how he perceives the world. He mentions a particular story – The War Games – as being instrumental in shaping his reality. I remember that story too, and can appreciate what it has done to Gaiman:
    These days, as a middle-aged and respectable author, I still feel a sense of indeterminate but infinite possibility on entering a lift, particularly a small one with white walls. That to date the doors that have opened have always done so in the same time, and world, and even the same building in which I started out seems merely fortuitous – evidence only of a lack of imagination on the part of the rest of the universe.
    I know exactly what he means – I have caught the same virus – but I can date the point of infection to long before Dr Who.
     
    It dates from growing up in my parent’s hotel. In the off-season, I had the run of the place. When I was six or seven, I used to shut myself in some of the large assortment of cupboards and wardrobes that were scattered through the bedrooms. I was quite convinced that when I came out of a cupboard I would be in a room that looked the same as the one which I had just left but that it was, in some mysterious fashion, totally different. And that beyond the room lay a hotel that was not the one I was in just a few moments ago…

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  • Waste

    A sad, but typically thought-provoking post from Teju Cole over at Modal Minority. And I was reading it while listening to Rufus Wainwright’s Nobody’s Off The Hook from Release The Stars. Oh boy…

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  • Not Just Wrong

    Ophelia makes a very good point about why people who invoke a higher authority are often mad, bad and dangerous to know.

    One response to “Not Just Wrong”

    1. Gelert Avatar
      Gelert

      This is an interesting point yes. The beef about women priests amused me a few years ago because both sides were claiming that God had revealed to them the truth of the matter – and amazingly God seemed to agree with what both sides thought. Yeah. I agree. I addressed it a bit in one of my fave entries ‘losing my religion’. Being a believer, I don’t draw from it the conclusion that there is, therefore, no God, just that some people cannot see past the possibility that they are wrong in some way. I myself, of course, am always right, and never need to bother God about my views anyway!

      Reply

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  • The Mouse Wheel

    I think it’s only right that we should pay tribute to Eric Michelman and his invention of the mouse wheel. It’s one of those "why didn’t I think of that" slaps to the forehead.

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  • IDAHO

    Today, May 17, is IDAHO day.

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  • The Long Take

    I, like many film buffs, find long tracking shots fascinating. Alan Bacchus, over at Daily Film Dose, has collected together an impressive list of examples of the art, many illustrated by clips. The list is headed, quite rightly, by the spectacular tracking shot from Welles’ Touch of Evil (and someone in the comments mentions the comedy homage to that in De Palma’s Phantom of the Paradise). There’s some discussion about whether trickery disqualifies an entry from the list, for example where two or more shots are stitched together to make the audience think it is one. Personally, I’m pretty relaxed about it – film as a whole is about illusion, anyway. And it would rule out one of my favourite tracking shots that is the opening of The Birdcage (which no-one seems to have mentioned) – the shot taken from a helicopter far out to sea flying towards the Miami skyline that apparently doesn’t stop until we end up inside the Birdcage club itself. 
     
    (hat tip to Jason Kottke for the link)

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  • Amen

    Christopher Hitchens says it very well…
     
     

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  • Dark Matter

    Phil, over at The Bad Astronomer, discusses some of the recent evidence to support the existence of Dark Matter in the universe. Pretty pictures, too.

    2 responses to “Dark Matter”

    1. Gelert Avatar
      Gelert

      There was marvelous picture in the paper today from the Hubble Space Telescope of the ‘ring of dark matter’ and a wonderful panorama of space.
       
      In answer to your comment on my blog – the reason I don’t is this:
       The kids would go home and tell their parents, who would write a letter complaining that I was telling their kids that there their eduction was a waste of time, the kids would use it as an excuse to do less, and I would be reprimanded. Such is the straight jacket today. Believe me. There’s a kid here that destroys every lesson she is in, and two teachers have refused to teach her any more. The parent’s response? To write a letter bringing a ‘charge’ against said members of staff for ‘picking on’ their little sweet. My cousin, who also teaches, was punched in the face by a father who didn’t like his son being reprimanded for sticking his hand up a female teacher’s skirt. Depressing indeed.

      Reply
    2. Geoff Avatar
      Geoff

      Gelert, I sympathise, and it’s easy enough for me to say, but I wish that people would stand up to the parents that wrote the letter or the father that punched your cousin. While we don’t, we just encourage more of that behaviour. But, as I say, it’s easy for me to pontificate. I don’t live in that situation any more. 

      Reply

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  • The Medieval Helpdesk

    I know just how the man in the black hat feels…
     
     

    3 responses to “The Medieval Helpdesk”

    1. Gelert Avatar
      Gelert

      That was excellent! ty for making me laugh.

      Reply
    2. Geoff Avatar
      Geoff

      Gelert, a pleasure. Just wish that we had more to laugh about at the moment…

      Reply
    3. Andy Avatar
      Andy

      Excellent!  Now if only the helpdesk guy was actually shouting through the wall and speaking in a language that he only had a limited command of we would be closer.  First, he would probably start by getting the monk to shut the book (even though it already was shut) and then to start with a brand new quill pen, and a few other things that had nothing whatever to do with the problem but would involve the monk clambering behind his desk having to fiddle with awkward drawers and artifacts that were hard to reach. 

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  • The Bonfire

    One of the things about keeping the garden in check here is the amount of prunings and loppings that is generated. As an alternative to carting it off to the recycling plant (for which we are charged by weight) we decided to go for the cheaper option of applying to the council for a license to burn the rubbish.
     
    We had built up a fair sized bonfire, and the original intention was to set it alight at Easter. In this part of The Netherlands, Easter bonfires (Paasvuuren) are a traditional part of the celebrations. However, we were hit by a double whammy. First, the council informed us that the license we had to light a bonfire was not valid for a Paasvuur, so we could not light it at sunset on Easter Sunday. OK, we thought, then we’ll light it on the Saturday. "Not so fast", replied the Fire Brigade, "because of the dry weather we’ve been having, we will not allow bonfires at all at the moment"… So we’ve had the bonfire sitting waiting expectantly in the field for a suitable moment.
     
    Well, today it suddenly came. The wet weather last week meant that the Fire Brigade’s ban had been lifted, and today dawned dry with relatively little wind. A quick call to the council to tell them we intended to light the fire, followed by the fetching of a bale of straw from our neighbouring farmer, and we were all set. Not ever having done this ourselves before, we asked another neighbour to be on hand and to light the fire. All went exceedingly well as can be seen from the photos. The one bad note was that once the fire was underway, it suddenly became apparent that there was a Blackbird’s nest deep inside the bonfire. One fledgling managed to escape the burning building, as it were, and crawled to safety. We left it to its own devices, but later in the afternoon it had disappeared. Because I don’t think it was able to fly, I suspect that its vanishing was probably caused by a passing crow… Such is Nature…
     
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    5 responses to “The Bonfire”

    1. Gelert Avatar
      Gelert

      It’s the amount of roasted snails that makes me feel bad after a fire – not even the edible variety I don’t think. Poor blackbirds.

      Reply
    2. Geoff Avatar
      Geoff

      Gelert, there are plenty of other Blackbird nests around at the moment. The species will continue…

      Reply
    3. Gelert Avatar
      Gelert

      I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – you take a wonderul picture. The sunsets are amazing Geoff.

      Reply
    4. Brian Avatar
      Brian

      I hope there were no hedgehogs in there….

      Reply
    5. Geoff Avatar
      Geoff

      No, any hedgehogs would have been long gone. Had the bonfire been lit 6 weeks ago, then it might have been different…

      Reply

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  • Cult, Religion, or Movement?

    The various channels of BBC TV provided an interesting comparison this evening.
     
    First up was Panorama, on BBC 1, with John Sweeney’s item on Scientology. The old joke goes: "what’s the difference betweeen a cult and a religion? Answer: about 2,000 years". How true this is. I think Sweeney – despite his totally understandable lapse – showed very clearly that Scientology is dangerous guff. Guff, because L. Ron Hubbard very successfully dreamed up this garbage, and dangerous, because Tom Davis was very clearly employing psychological tricks to unsettle Sweeney.
     
    But following this dip into the cesspool of Scientology, came an unexpected bracing from BBC Four with Scouting For Boys. Yes, the jokes are all too easy (scouting for boys?), but ultimately, the philosophy (note: not religion) of Baden-Powell came across as life-affirming. There is something positive about wanting to improve people’s sense of citizenship, and wanting to improve life for all. As his grandson said – he was a bit of a nutter, but it was clear that his heart was definitely in the right pace. Given the choice between people such as Tom Davis and Baden-Powell, then give me Baden-Powell every time.

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