Stanislav Petrov
Posted: Wed 27 September, 2006 Filed under: General, News, Weirdness Leave a comment »Amazing, the things you find out sometimes.
Twenty-three years ago today, Stanislav Petrov saw multiple missile launches reported by his early-warning satellites and waited, knowing the satellite had been reported faulty, rather than reacting instantly to those American missile launches by launching the Soviet nuclear missiles under his control. He’s since been awarded two “World Citizen Awards”, and can be seen as pretty much saving the world from World War Three.
Trains
Posted: Mon 25 September, 2006 Filed under: Travel, Weirdness Leave a comment »Amazingly, the journey to Cambridge today went really smoothly. Although I have to say, I was right when my now-ex-employers moved to the London office, and I really truly couldn’t handle the commuter train to get in to London before 9am. OK, getting on where I do helps, as there’s normally still seating, but then halfway through the journey it’s still jam-packed like the Black Hole of Calcutta. Fuckin’ horrible.
All the same, though, it was OK. I got to Waterloo, onto Tubes that were busy but nowhere near full, in to Kings Cross, and then up to Cambridge. All on time, (in fact I even got an earlier train to Cambridge, and thus arrived at 9.30 instead of the planned 10.00am) and no problems at all.
No-one is more surprised than I.
Bizarre
Posted: Fri 22 September, 2006 Filed under: Photography, Weirdness Leave a comment »Yesterday I had a sudden thought. Not a common occurrence at all, but anyway.
Why not have a look to see if Cambridge has a Camera Club?
Thought I.
So I did a quick search, and lo, Cambridge Camera Club hoves into view. Great, that’ll be a good way to spend an evening once I’m there next week.
Um, no. Membership is now closed ’til September 2007. So what’s the point of that then? Photographers are only allowed to join once a year? Not even get a chance to see if they like the place?
Bag o’ crap.
e-Commerce
Posted: Thu 14 September, 2006 Filed under: Customer Services, Cynicism, Getting Organised, Weirdness Leave a comment »Over the last few days, the iTunes music store has been annoying me. OK, I know I’ve got some fairly obscure tastes on occasion, but even so, when looking for things like “Leonard Cohen” the list is missing some fairly relevant stuff. The last couple of albums, for instance. Let alone some of the older stuff – and finding the album I particularly wanted, which is a collection of cover versions of his stuff, well, that’s just never going to happen.
And I can’t find anything on iTunes for a bundle of other bands – OK, some of them are old now, but isn’t that what “The Long Tail” was always supposed to be about? But no, nothing on there for Timbuk3, The Pale, or a couple of others.
Anyway, back to Leonard Cohen, and in fact it’s easier to go back and find the exact album on Amazon, and add it to the basket.
However, Amazon’s not perfect either. I was also looking for an A-Z map of Cambridge, for obvious reasons. But hang on – a £1.50 sourcing fee? What the hell? And up to 14 days for delivery? Fuck off. In that case it’s far easier to go direct to the company and order it direct. No sourcing fee. No postage. A flat £3.50. And I’ll get it by Monday. Perfect.
Commuters
Posted: Thu 31 August, 2006 Filed under: Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness 2 Comments »One thing I do find really amusing while commuting to London is the other people on the trains, and on the Underground.
I have to admit, I just really don’t understand the drive and rush that surrounds these people. On the way home last night there was one guy who was about two points short of a coronary (or stroke) on the Tube – OK, he’d obviously got a train to catch, but at every stop he was swearing, sighing, checking his watch, swearing, sighing, checking his watch, and once the train got moving it’d always be “About fucking time too”. To me, it was very, very funny. To him it was obviously some kind of “life or death” thing to get on the train. And when we got to Waterloo, he shoved his way through the people, ran up the stairs, ran up the escalators. And still missed his train.
I know, because I was on the same one he got on – a whole ten minutes later, going to the same place as the one he’d just missed.
So I have to ask, “Was it worth it?“. No, I didn’t ask him – obviously it was all a bit stressful, the poor dear. But what’s the point of getting so stressed and apoplectic about that kind of thing?
Admittedly, I’m on the other end of the scale, and truly don’t give a shit what time I get in to the office. So I can stroll through the platforms and tunnels etc. of the Underground, and it’s no problem. (Although I should point out too that my “stroll” still ends up overtaking most people) But I just can’t be arsed to get stressed about missing a train – and definitely not about missing a tube train, as they run every couple of minutes anyway.
I just don’t get the entire “rush everywhere, every second is important, time-is-money” crap that so many of these people seem to spout.
Like Bueller said, “Sometimes you just have to slow down and look around“. It’s much more fun.
505
Posted: Sun 20 August, 2006 Filed under: D4D™, Weirdness Leave a comment »Is it really sad for me to notice this
and be quite chuffed to have seen that number in all its palindromic and repetitive glory?
Yeah, thought so.