MIT has run its lectures through “automatic speech-recognition technology” and made a mini search-engine for the results. The results are intuitively displayed, pointing you to the time at which your search-term occurs within the lecture. Every university should have one. Sadly, mine only has Moodle.
Archive for November, 2007
Ticket-machine as philosopher
My British Rail ticket-machine contemplated the infinite today…
Sony Ericsson K800i
Well; I never thought I’d say this, but my new carry-everywhere pocket digicam is a mobile phone. Fuji’s pocket camera s have died on me one time too many, and so I’ve been swayed by a Sony Ericsson K800i hybrid phone- camera -mp3 player. It’s basically a phone that, when flipped over, becomes a Sony […]
The Age of Enchantment
Oohh; The Age of Enchantment: Beardsley, Dulac and their Contemporaries, 1880-1930 at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London, until 17th February 08. Dulac’s Fairy Tale Book: fairy tales of the allied nations is online in complete form, courtesy of a scanning initiative of Oldenburg University. Over in Australia, the University of Melbourne offers Aubrey Beardsley […]
Dead Fuji
My Fuji F440 camera has leapt, lemming-like, over the cliff of obsolescence. It’s lasted 2 and a half years, which is about the same as any of my previous Fuji digicams lasted for. This time, the zoom and focus have expired together. Oh well; it was expected… time for a new pocket digicam.
Six out of 10 arts graduates may waste their degree
25 Nov 2007 at 12:33
David Haden
Artist(s), Birmingham, Creative industries, Teaching
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Interesting news of new research from Kent… “One in three graduates ends up in a job that does not require a degree, researchers from Kent University have found. … Among creative and arts graduates, almost six out of 10 ended up in jobs for which they were over-qualified…” Another recent study showed that male arts […]
UT3 launches in Birmingham
Wesley Yin-Poole reports from the Birmingham launch of Unreal Tournament 3 in the UK. Nice that they launched one of the year’s biggest FPS games in the second city, although it’s a pity the UK got it last. Germany had it on the 12th, for instance. Australia on the 15th. The game was released nationwide […]
Asus Eee wallpapers
I’ve slapped together 18 possible 800 x 480-pixel wallpapers for my new Asus Eee 4G laptop and its Xandros Linux OS. Should you be one of the gazzillion other Eee buyers, you can download them from my Flickr set…
Taking the ‘fun’ out of arts funding
23 Nov 2007 at 16:43
David Haden
Artist(s), Arts cuts, Creative industries
Comments Off on Taking the ‘fun’ out of arts funding
Hmmm… it seems I was right to be wary about accepting about recent headlines about a ‘rise’ in arts spending. DCMS admits its arts funding figures are wrong, says The Stage… “Exclusive: The Department for Culture, Media and Sport has been forced to admit to a series of embarrassing errors after an investigation by The […]
Mick Ryan
Wow; a superb selection of nu-real photography created by Mick Ryan.
Squ.eee!
I just ordered an Asus Eee (4Gb, black). The OQO 2 might have been nice, but at £229 inc. VAT and delivery, the Eee is some £800 cheaper, and thus less likely to invoke worries about theft or damage. Once I have it set up, I’ll blog about the potential of the Eee as an […]
Google Life
I was thinking about the possible ‘Google Life’ applications of the more advanced timelines I recent blogged about. Assume we’re a few years in the future, and Google has cracked automated voice-recognition and transcription, and thus indexes radio, TV news, your telephone conversations, podcasts, all your social network stuff such as your blog feeds & […]
John Who?
Well, I wanted to blog about the Conservative Party’s Arts Taskforce report on reforming the arts funding systems, as written by Sir John Tusa. Sadly, the report seems to have sunk almost without trace in a little over two weeks. One article in the national press, and nothing more. At the Conservative Party website, a […]
Birmingham: the Creative City
20 Nov 2007 at 22:41
David Haden
Birmingham, Creative industries
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Birmingham: the Creative City – the video film.
Kindling interest
Well, the Amazon Kindle ebook reader was rumoured to be launched on 19th November, but neither the Amazon UK or US websites seem to have heard it it yet. I was getting excited… until I saw the images of it… Yuk. It looks like a naff BT telephone answering-machine from circa 1979. Let’s hope the […]
Bulldozing Britain
Britain is being demolished… “Our town and city centres are being rebuilt, the suburbs enlarged and remodelled, our public buildings reconstructed or replaced, the great Victorian and Edwardian civic structures abandoned, pubs are being turned into restaurants, banks into bars, warehouses into flats, town halls into offices, even churches into cafés. This is change to […]
Really Useful Bits of Technology for 2008
16 Nov 2007 at 14:51
David Haden
Comments Off on Really Useful Bits of Technology for 2008
My personal choice of Ten Really Useful Bits of Technology that may change your life (or that of your cat) in 2008… 1. Personal mobile phone jammers – here now, works perfectly in the UK. Size of a packet of ciggies, and probably based on a Chinese interpretation of the Wavebubble. 2. Small lightweight £220 […]
Fare rises arrival
Erk; inter-city train tickets through the West Midlands are rising by about 8% in early 2008. It looks like a £15.50 peak return ticket from Stoke to Birmingham; which means that the price will have almost doubled over the last six years.
Rhubarb rumblings
Julian Perry’s ‘A Common Treasury’: the Sheds Lost to the Olympiad pictures the home-made allotment sheds of the 100-year old Manor Garden in London. His show runs until 16th November 07 at the Austin Desmond gallery in London. Apparently… “the sheds themselves are now buried behind the 11-mile wall of the Olympic Security Zone”, to […]
The Nerd Handbook
The Nerd Handbook including Advanced Nerd Tweakage. Not sure about the intense TV channel-surfing (didn’t most real nerds give up TV years ago?), I think perhaps there’s some confusion with North American fan-boyism there. Large parts of the Handbook ring true, but some parts seem like he’s describing people who are too close to his […]