Courtesy of Grant, Arts and Letters Daily.

I can’t decide on a phone. Maybe I want the Nokia 7650 instead of the 7250i. It’s bigger than the 7250i but not as big as the 3650 but it’s got a bigger screen. They’ve both got Java, but the 7650 has Bluetooth while the 7250i has an XHTML browser and a better camera. One runs Symbian OS, the other Nokia OS. I’ll probably decide on price, in the end.

I went to see David Blaine yesterday. It really wasn’t that interesting in the end, but it was a good excuse to head down to the Thames. I walked from London Bridge, past Southwark Cathedral and Borough Market, then along the Queen’s Walk. I knew it was somewhere near the GLC building and Tower Bridge, but I thought the box was over the Thames, so it took a surprisingly long time to come into view. There were lots of other people there to have a look. I didn’t see any hecklers, everyone seemed neutral or supportive. His box moved in the wind a lot more than I thought. I wonder if he’ll have ‘sea legs’ when he comes down (assuming he hasn’t secretly already).
I still think it’s sick to starve yourself for profit when so many people around the world are dying of starvation.
The view as you approach…

A closer view with Tower Bridge in the background.

There’s always someone trying to make some money.. this guy was selling roses ‘for David Blaine’. The price seemed to depend on how much of a tourist he thought you were.

He must be real because he moves! A feeble victory sign.

A newer London icon, the Greater London Council building.

It’s Sandrine in Montreal!

I’ve given up, sold my soul and registered with Amazon. Using the site now is scary. I’m amazed at how many rough edges remain, I would have thought they’d have gotten rid of them all.
For instance, I had three items in my shopping basket, none of which related to Oracle, but because I’d browsed Oracle books, it tried to tell me that “Customers who bought the items in your shopping basket also bought:” Oracle books. It’s not so bad that it used the last books I’d browsed to recommend more (as much as I hate upselling), but you’d think they’d be careful to get the source (recent item views, not basket contents) right.
It also said “Hello Mia, we have recommendations for you”, but when I clicked on the link I got a page that said, “We’re sorry. We were unable to find any titles to recommend after looking at your purchase history.”. That would be because I’m a new user, dufus. You’d think the programmer would a) trap for users with no possible recommendations and not write out the link and b) ask for a sensible selection of beginner or best seller books to recommend. To make it worse, the ‘we have recommendations for you’ link is also present on the page where they say they don’t have recommendations for me. It’s not rocket science, kids.
And the font they use for ‘Your Site’ is incredibly crappy. It doesn’t match the weight, height, or aliasing of the original.

I’m loving the Oracle training I’ve been on this week. I’ve learnt lots of useful things, and it’s been good for me to see how much I’d already taught myself on the job, as well as how good a grounding I got doing Comp Sci at uni.
But today I had a lot of trouble keeping a straight face when we started the PL/SQL chapters. Apparently it’s based almost entirely on Ada, so for the foreseeable future, I’ll be using almost-Ada on a daily basis. I can’t tell you how ironic this is.

Is this for real? Military Forward Command Post with Two 12″ Military Action Figures

“Opposition Leader Simon Crean has told labor MPs to show due respect to visiting US President George Bush as confidential Labor Party polling has shown overwhelming voter support for the Australian-American alliance.” (Age)
It’s be a cheap shot to say, ‘that’s unAustralian’ but I’m so tempted.
“Labor strategists are worried that the party is seen to be anti-American because it did not support the pre-emptive strike against Iraq.”
Demanding that “MPs should stand for Mr Bush when he arrives to deliver his speech and at its conclusion” regardless of their beliefs is surely just going to make things worse.

British Pathe have put their archives online, free for personal use (if you live in the British Isles).