Writer Margaret Atwood launched her LongPen invention over the weekend, allowing authors to sign books over the Internet. As CTV.ca, Canada’s CTV news reports, a technical glitch marred the LongPen’s first test: Atwood and fans had to wait while the invention got some final adjustments. When it came back to life, she used the LongPen… Read More »
Why is it that big chains in the service industry assume that when you write to them complaining about something that you’re just out for a freebie? The thinking seems to go: this person is trying to blackmail us. So bribe them. Case in point: Just got back from a weekend at five-star hotel in… Read More »
I’m in Phnom Penh International Airport for the first time in 15–odd years, and it’s remarkable. They’ve recently renovated it from what it was before, but I’m guessing they’ve been through a few changes since I used to come here to visit the isolated regime of Hun Sen, the then People’s Republic of Kampuchea. He’s… Read More »
This week’s (paid subscription only; apologies) column in the WSJ.com (which runs in the Personal Journal of The Asian Wall Street Journal) is about the gunk in your keyboard: An exhaustive poll of my friends reveals that all sorts of stuff is being spilled over the average keyboard: biscuit crumbs, mango, fizzy beverage, the odd… Read More »
Currently at my mother’s UK flat and frankly horrified at some of the kitchen appliance design I’m seeing here. There’s a Credaplan Microwave (which thankfully doesn’t seem to exist anymore) which sports an interface a succession of PhDs have not been able to fathom. Then there’s a brand new Indesit WIDL146 washing machine which looks… Read More »