The Pop Up Piggyback

Is it just me, or have these interstitial ads or whatever they call themselves suddenly become ubiquitous, and no less annoying for it? They now seem to be everywhere (even O’Reilly uses them, shockingly, although it does offer a way to disable them). These are ads, courtesy of companies like Vibrant Media IntelliTXT, that add … Read more

Portability Over Quality: The MP3 Scam

I happen to be a new fan of Alva Noto, whose minimalist bleeps and hisses may not be everyone’s cup of tea. (My wife thinks we have mice.) Anyway, I’m also testing headphones so I’m sitting outside by the communal pool taking in his second album with Ryuichi Sakamoto (my hero; I once interviewed him … Read more

Buzz Spam

Anyone else getting spammed by craigslist, or rather its PR company? This in my blog mail inbox: hi there Jeremy, quick note to let you in on all the chitchat happening on the electronics forum over on craigslist.org http://forums.craigslist.org/?forumID=74 it’s the new year and in the spirit of giving and resolutions, people are helping people…with … Read more

The Excellent Archives

Just got back from a day at London’s Public Record Office which now seems to call itself the National Archives. It’s an amazing place, and I have to say very well organised and run. And it’s all free. I was digging around for stuff for my alleged book on Indonesian politics, but from a technology point … Read more

This week’s column – Flash Drives Aren’t Flash

This week’s Loose Wire column is about Flash drives:  I LEFT YOU last week in the capable hands of Ethel Girdle, the fictitious octogenarian who took her accusations of built-in obsolescence to the technology giants. One of her beefs was about so-called flash drives–small devices that store data, for example as memory cards for MP3 … Read more