My most used software 2012

*Free has two meanings in the world of computer software

• Free (as in beer) – this means at no cost. You get the software for nothing.
• Free (as in speech) – this means not closed, proprietary. You could take a aprt the software and rewrite it if you wanted to, and this is explicitly allowed.

Why not let me know what software you can’t live without, by filling in the comment box below.

Steve Jobs Biography

I’m currently reading the biography of Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson and very revealing it is too.

I’m quite a fan of biographies of people in the tech industry and this book is certainly one with the most in depth look at it’s subject’s personality. Perhaps that’s because Steve Job’s personality is more interesting than say Bill Gates!

I’m about half-way through the book at the moment and what strikes me is How did he do it? Almost everyone quoted in the book reminds us of Steve Job’s almost sociopathic personality. He bullied, berated and belittled almost everyone in his life. The fact that he achieved so much and that there is a cult of Steve Jobs amongst fans of Apple products is getting harder and harder to understand the more I read of the book.

I remember a teacher at school, Don Culver, always used to tell us “Hitler liked children and dogs but he was still evil”. The cult of personality seems to depend more on something built in to the person rather than their actions.

In the book I’ve not heard many quotes from people saying the liked Steve Jobs, or that they enjoyed working for him. But there’s no doubt he brought something out of those people that they might otherwise never have discovered.

A good read!

Press Pass 2011

Bit different from my previous life….

Press Pass 1997

I go past the Strata building in Elephant and Castle regularly and have never once seen the wind turbines going round.

The Telehouse West datacentre was hailed at “Green” during it’s construction but according to the press, the electricty from it’s solar panels only goes to provide charging facilities onsite for non-existent electric cars, and it’s heat exchange service ends at the site perimeter with no local housing within practical distance.

The Kinetica building I passed by on Sunday at Dalston’s Uprise festival and again no sign of the turbines moving despite the moderate wind.

I was in Italy at the time of the attacks, on honeymoon with Jeanette. As often is the case when on holiday, daily news wasn’t part of the routine but on that particular day we’d turned on the television in our hotel room and watched in disbelief and then horror at the unfolding events.

The changes in American politics since has been dramatic and (to me) unfortunate – Guatanamo Bay, State approved torture, rendition. A survey into attitudes ten years after the 9/11 attacks has found over half  thought that torture of suspected terrorists was OK, and a similar number favoured “harsh interrogation techniques.” It seems the USA has become desensitised to violence and I wonder if there is a way back to being the benign world policeman that has helped keep the globe largely at peace since World War II. On a more hopeful note,  the survey also found that 46 per cent of people felt torture wasn’t justified. I wonder what a similar survey of UK citizens would reveal.

The text says:

Noks Frigate

Use hand and head — Training kid’s flexible for their proportion on the hands and eyes. Develop them imagination ability. Make a teaching fairyland.

Design munificent — It can be assemblaged detached over and over, and looks like vertiable. It needn’t any assist tools.

Perfect in workmanship — Materials are daintiness. Safety and slightly. Full of colour printing.

Regardless of the way it’s written it was actually great fun. Father and son had a good time putting it together. All for 100 Baht (=GBP£2) in Hat Yai.

Here’s a small selection of the highlights.