2004-03-19 : Signs and portents
As well as being a tube station (on the Victoria line), Highbury and Islington is served by the Silverlink North London Line, which is an overground overground line, and the WAGN Great Northern Electrics line, which is an underground overground line.
Until recently, the WAGN line had no next train indicators on their platforms, or indeed at any of the stations on the Moorgate to Finsbury Park branch. There's one at H&I now, but there's also a major problem. The indicator board is about 60% of the way towards the back of the platform from the exit. It's also behind a much bigger sign pointing at the southbound Victoria line platform, which is right next door- in fact, you can usually see the tube trains from the overground trains.
This means it's impossible to read the train running information until you get past the static sign, which is further than I tend to walk. Who thought that one up? (Still, Old Street still don't have working indicators at all. I suppose I should be thankful.)
| posted by paul mison at 15:19 | | | wanders and observations |
| [ 2 ] comment | | | trackback [ 0 ] |
2004-02-10 : Tetris remainders
Alerted by Dan Hon's post, I watched the BBC Four Computer Night (with documentaries on Tetris, British home computing and games as art) last night. I was fresh and ready to post about it this morning, when I found that Yoz had got there first, making the general point I was going to about the show. I've added my tuppence there (ah, if only I had got round to setting up local mirrors of my comments), but I thought I'd mention a couple of bits here that got lost.
Firstly, the movie that I referred to in the comment that got eaten by Yoz's defanging of my HTML is truly scary, about 13MB big and, in a blatant piece of copying, available here. Hopefully I won't be sued to death. Secondly, I was amazed to see, during the Timeshift programme about British home computing, that there was an IBM PC advert that actually included the BBC Micro logo (along with the Apple and CBM logos) as if they were serious competition. Thirdly, Trigger Happy made a much better book than a half-hour TV show.
| posted by paul mison at 10:03 | | | computing |
| [ 0 ] comment | | | trackback [ 0 ] |
2004-01-06 : iPod mini: how much?
Complaint: the mini iPod is expensive.
Item: mini iPod. Small. Mainly ugly colours. FireWire and USB2. 4GB.
$249.
Item: Creative Nomad Muvo2. Small. Ugly. USB2. 4GB.
$299. At 14% off.
Item: iRiver iGP-100. Small. Ugly. Capable, though. USB2. 1.5GB.
$249.
Item: Rio Nitrus. Small. Ugly. USB2. 1.5GB.
$219.
Note: Apparently Rio have announced that the Nitrus is going to also be 4GB, also for $249.
I agree that the iPod mini hurts when you compare it to the iPod proper, but it doesn't hurt so badly when you compare it to its peers.
(Updated Wednesday morning with the iRiver 1.5GB player.)
| posted by paul mison at 22:32 | | | computing |
| [ 0 ] comment | | | trackback [ 0 ] |
2004-01-04 : TLA++: BBC MP3 CDs
Idly wandering through the vast Waterstones on Piccadilly, I saw that the BBC are now doing MP3 CDs of some of their dramas, notably the complete Hitchhiker's Guide radio series and the His Dark Materials from earlier this year.
Oddly, however, these appear to be only available at Waterstones (in the case of His Dark Materials and some of the other new stuff) and online at the BBC Shop.
Personally, I've never really got the hang of audio books; I listen to things if they're on Radio 4 and I'm about, or I miss them. I wouldn't mind the complete HHGTTG, though, and this is a handy way for them to distribute it, so I hope it works well.
| posted by paul mison at 23:32 | | | wanders and observations |
| [ 0 ] comment | | | trackback [ 1 ] |
2003-12-10 : Another vision of the future iPod
About a week ago, I was thinking about the iPod, after the iPod's Dirty Secret meme did its work, candace succumbed to the lure of white, and various stories about DJs and iPods.
The other thing I was thinking about was the distinction between Apple's product lines; the white plastic of iBooks and iMacs, and the brushed metal of the PowerBook and PowerMac. Was there room, I wondered, for a model of iPod that's distinct?
| posted by paul mison at 14:00 | | | computing |
| [ 2 ] comment | | | trackback [ 0 ] |
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