Ian Robinson’s Soapbox

Bill Maher tells some truths. See the video on onegoodmove. Thanks to Pharyngula for the link.

I thought I’d written about the Swedish group, The Concretes, here on the Soapbox before. But it seems not. I’ve been into the group for a few years now. For several reasons, one of which was the vocals of Victoria Bergsman. I say was, because it seems she has left the group. Not all doom [...]

The iPod touch lacks the Notes application that is on the iPhone. As a work around for this (until Apple gets the message and adds it via a software update!) you can create a Contact called Notes and use the Note field of the contact to record snippets, to-dos, etc. on the go. The Contacts [...]

I posted earlier about getting sun burnt in San Francisco. I was curious how far it was from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Bay Bridge. Using Google Maps to get directions it seems it is 5.9 miles. See picture below. More pictures of the route here and here. Click picture for larger view. Route [...]

Just got electronic access to the first few books for a new Open University course that starts on 6th October. It’s a 3rd level computing course called Natural and Artificial Intelligence. It covers traditional AI research and how ideas from biological systems and evolution are shaping AI ideas. Finished the introductory book already. Good stuff. [...]

Well almost. A short announcement episode has been published. See the iTMS feed.

Thrown up on random play on a flight from San Francisco. It has an excellent guitar solo in the 2nd half of the song. Paul Roland’s stuff is very quirky but I love it. Snippet available on iTMS.

About 15 minutes out from landing in Belfast last night, on the way back from San Francisco via London Heathrow, the pilot comes on the intercom to say we’d be landing soon and that the weather was sunny but that the wind was from the north, As a result it would feel colder than it [...]

A few years ago I was in San Diego and got the head burnt off me by the Sun. I learnt my lesson then and don’t venture out in sunny climes now without a hat. I’ve now learnt the same lesson for my arms and neck! During a walk from the Bay Bridge to the [...]

So I read on TUAW that some iPod touch units were starting to hit the Apple stores in the USA. So I hightailed it round to the San Francisco store to see if I could get one. I did. A 16GB one. There are unboxing photos in the web gallery linked on the right. In [...]