Thats the time and temperature in our bedroom. Bit of a cold start this morning! No heating in my place – not normally needed, but this is the chilliest its been for a long time.

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.

Great night. And they even played old fashioned (i.e. 20th Century) music. Which was nice.

A temporary rink is due to be built on Pope’s Road, Brixton for two and a half years and then towards the end of 2013, a new permanent rink will open.

There will be a Closing Gala at Streatham on Sunday 18th December 2011 starting at 4pm with a Gala performance from 4 to 6pm followed by a party on the ice until 8pm. Tickets will be £7.50 to include the Gala, the skate afterwards and skate hire if required. For more details see Gala Poster.

Please come along to watch, skate or both. It is a chance to celebrate the long life of the much-loved 1931 building and mark the end of one era and the start of the next.

This will be the last day of operation of the rink. The temporary rink will be open on Monday 19th December.

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

It’s a dry run for a much bigger construction this time next year, during the Olympic Games.

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.