It seems that the Fake Steve Jobs blog is closing down. As he says..
Well my friggin lawyers are advising me that I will have to shut down this scandalous old blog. Details not worth going into here. Someday I’ll be able to explain.
Hopefully, the archives will remain for the time being. Some people just don’t seem have a sense of humour….
A nice article from Tim Harford of the Financial Times, one of the most interesting economists out there (and IMHO there are a few).
So what is happening? To some extent, the same thing that happened to the paperless office. It turned out that all those computers made it easy and cheap to produce a lot of documents. Yes, the documents could in principle have been viewed on screen, but why not print them out?
Similarly, e-mail, internet networking and cheap phone calls have made it easy to maintain a lot of relationships. In principle some of them could be restricted to cyberspace, but how much fun is that? The same e-mail that allows you to maintain a long-distance business relationship also creates demand for more travel as people try to establish those relationships in the first place.
Closer to home, communication technology makes it easier than ever to arrange a drink with friends. Just e-mail a distribution list or post the invitation on your online journal. This spontaneity isn’t much use if your friends are hundreds of miles away.
E-mail and mobile phones aren’t substitutes for face-to-face contact at all. As the economists Jess Gaspar and Ed Glaeser have pointed out, they are complements to it.
Some funny quotes from overheardintheoffice.com
Twentysomething new hire: Why is there a Harry Potter picture in our lobby?
Fortysomething manager: Actually that’s a painting of John Lennon.
From eBay in Australia comes the following interesting item.. At the end of the piece there is a note that a documentary is being made about the process. Reality TV takes a deeper step into identity management and a ground-breaking example of identity transferral. If Identity Theft went this far it would be impressive and scary.
NEW LIFE FOR SALE!!
This auction is for a New Life in the coastal town of Wollongong, Australia of a 24 year old male.It includes the following:
Winning bidder will take ownership of my:
– Name– Phone number
– All my possessions which includes the following
– Clothes,
– Roughly 300 CDs
– Surfboard
– Laptop (minus certain information with my discretion),
– Pushbike (Has wonky handlebars, may need some work)
– Books,
– Bed
– CD player
– Backpack
– Tennis racquets
– Golf Clubs(which you will have no idea how to use)
– Childhood photos
– Skateboard
– Nice lamp which your ex-girlfriend bought you.
– I will teach you my skills which include the following
– Surfing (Expert)
– Climbing (Intermediate)
– Skateboarding (Novice)
– Handstand Skills (Expert)
– Fire Twirling Skills (Intermediate)
– Devil Stick Twirling (Expert)
(Plus many more)
– Will introduce to all my friends & potential lovers (around 8 which I have been flirting with)
– I have around 15 close friends and around 170 other friends
– I have 2 nemeses.
– Lifestyle is very social. It includes a lot of going out.
NB: Friends will treat you exactly as they have treated me. This includes friends who take me surfing, running, climbing and cook for me. All of these features will be transferred over to the winning applicant.
Life also includes the following features
– Will have access to a cruisy job in march delivering fruit.
– You will write a satirical horiscope in the University of Wollongong Magazine.
– You will have new parents to have Christmas with & birthday presents from friends.
– A birthday party will also be organised for you.
Another airline decides to pursue the supremely sane option of including all-in fares on it’s offers page. Well, it’s there for flights from the Netherlands but not included on their offers from Sweden yet. One thing that I didn’t know before is that this is a requirement for a new Code of Conduct for Travel Offers.
Update – It seems to be only applicable for the Netherlands for the moment. Let’s hope it extends as far as possible.
KLM is introducing this change in accordance with the new Code of Conduct for Travel Offers, which requires the travel industry to include taxes and surcharges in the prices quoted for all flights starting from 1 April 2007. The KLM fares themselves remain the same. In addition, all KLM fares will always refer to return flights. This will allow you to know at a glance how much your ticket will cost, every time.
The only expense that will still be charged separately is reservation costs. The Code of Conduct for Travel Offers specifies that all unavoidable costs must be included – in other words, costs over which the customer has no choice.
Reservation costs, on the other hand, are different depending on where you book your ticket – via Internet, travel agent or phone. Here you have a choice and can influence how much you pay. Booking online via klm.nl costs ten euro per ticket, for example.
According to this news report on the BBC, 100% of Irish Euro notes have traces of cocaine.
The scientists at Dublin’s City University said they were “surprised by their findings”.
Some of the notes had such high levels of cocaine on them that it is thought they were used to snort the drug.
Others had much lower traces and may have been cross-contaminated, perhaps in the wallets or pockets of users.
It looks absolutely amazing. It has almost everything including simplicity of synchronisation.
Here is a quick hands on impression from the New York Times.
Reciprocity is key. Years ago, fresh out of film school, I landed my first job, at a literary agency. I became what I thought was friends with another assistant, who worked, as I did, for an infamously bad-tempered agent. We ate lunch together almost every day. Our camaraderie was fierce, like that of soldiers during wartime. Then she found a new job working for a publicist down the street. We still met for lunch once a week. In lieu of complaining about our bosses, I told her about my concerns that I wasn’t ready to move in with my boyfriend. She listened politely, but she never divulged anything personal about her own life. Eventually our lunches petered out to once a month, before she drifted out of my life for good. I was eager to tell her my problems, but she wasn’t eager to tell me hers. The necessary reciprocity was missing, so our acquaintanceship never tipped over into friendship.
That great site Photojojo has some wonderful ideas on getting the camera out for another year and to start clicking. For example there is Take a photo every single day, oops too late for that or I’ll just start today and continue to January 9th 2008. Check it out and get inspired.