A Donkey on the Edge

Can one use the flow created by the cyclical capilary action generated by dipping a cloth in water and letting it evaporate? I’ve no idea, but this guy recons he’s worked out the Cyclical gravity greenhouse liquid capillary action energy generator

Leslie Harpold’s advent calendar is up.

I was doing some research on social software and have just come across Christopher Allen’s blog, Life With Alacrity, and mention of his application SynchroEdit.

I’ve been trying to experiment with SubEthaEdit which is a very cool (I’m told) app for simultaneous realtime modification of a web page. Sounds very great, but couldn’t find anyone else with it installed (it’s a Mac OSX app) so haven’t been able to have much of a play.

In any case, Synchro is web-based so should be easier to experiment with :-)

So apparently, FireWire is on life support—Jason O’Grady asks what our take is on the death of Firewire.

Well I’m not entirely surprised as it wouldn’t be the first time Apple has fanfared the launch of a new technology only to drop it months later. I’d just like to check one thing, how are we supposed to boot the new Intel Powerbooks in target mode? Will this happen via usb2?

Little Clem was playing at her friend Sophia’s house yesterday when she came down with some serious temperature. Nicki kept her medicated all afternoon and put her to bed early.

Last night was rough—most problems you sort of know what to do, but when your kid starts whimpering and clutching her tummy the choices are peppermint tea or a trip to the ER. So 3am it was a little touch-and-go but she’s sort of settled now.

Still pitiful and heavily medicated, Clemmie is hugging baby Anabel (Charlie, Mary?) and watching Mary Poppins…

I take 100 daft pictures a day with the N70 and ain’t it just typical I don’t have a camera on me today.

Nicki and I dragged our dead cooker to the dump this afternoon and I saw the sky for the first time. There’s a giant column of darkness to the North East and a blanket of dark haze goes from there, over London and off to the East. At 16:00 this afternoon, it felt like the war of the worlds (or the chimney-sweep scene from mary Poppins) with eddies and swirls of foggy, hazy cloud picking up strange colours from the seting sun. Very, very weird…

Well, tomorrow we pack and on Thursday, after more than 10 years on West End Lane, we finally move house.

I just tried to comment on a blog whose author is taking part in a ‘fair and frank’ with Anil Dash, SixApart’s professional network guy. As luck would have it, when I clicked “Post comment” TypePad barfed (so is that coincidence, irony or poetic justice?)

So anyway, thought I’d post the comment here:

The Man Who Invented the Internet: Scalability issues redux

I think there’s a balance where we can reasonably spend our time either fixing things or talking about them…

What SixApart are going through isn’t new, but it still doesn’t justify making this sort of comment.

When you’re distributing a cool Perl script made by a handy programmer with an interface cut by his very talented designer partner it’s ok to be human.

When you go incorporated, sell commercial licenses to your product, start international offices and set sail to take over the world it’s an entirely different matter.

Real companies have departments that build stuff and fix stuff and they also have departments that communicate. In the real world, one doesn’t preclude the other.

From a marketing point of view, I feel the pain of a bunch of really cool people trying to do the right thing for the right reasons coming up against the jugernaught of market forces.

There seems to be a spate of online services going awry. Last week it was TypePad suffering a meltdown, and now it’s continued hiccups for del.icio.us

Interesting to compare the user (and mostly developer) feedback in both cases. The TypePad crash launched a number of complaints about poor communication on 6A’s part. On the whole, the developers were grumpy and many were wondering if they could recommend TP as a platform to their clients.

By contrast, the long list of 245 comments on the del.icio.us blog is overwhelmingly positive and filled with messages of support and commiseration:-)

Still, does Apoa know she’s got a portrait in the V&A?

V&A - Day of Record: Notting Hill Carnival 2003