Author: Adam

Celebration! (Cocktails and Beer)

I’ll be sipping €5 cocktails in Sober Lane from 5:30 tomorrow to celebrate the recent addition to my family, and to celebrate the sleep I’ll get afterwards. May head over to Paulaner Oktoberfest Beag in Beamish & Crawford’s later in the evening, but I’m playing that by ear. Give me a tinkle if you’re coming in later.

[Sorry about the dupe post, stupid Hellotxt has a problem with ampersands. Seriously, ampersands. I’ll be switching back to TwitterFeed unless they get their house in order.]

Turbine-Powered Batmobile

So near and yet so far. Crap build quality on the inside, and seriously, an iPad? But worst of all, how could you possibly build something like this and not fit a motor to the canopy?

Still cool though. :)

(I just had a(nother kid), and this time I’m actually doing baby-minding. There’s going to be an awful lot of crap posted in the middle of the night. Uh, sorry?)

Barbican Bolero

Danny MacAskill again, together with another bicyclist, a skateboarder, and a couple of free runners, filmed at the Barbican in London for a documentary called Concrete Circus. Lucky bastards.

I really gotta lose some weight and buy me a bicycle. Freerunning would kill me and skateboarding does nothing for me, but I reckon I could get away with trial biking at a push. :)

MMM: Cadillac Ciel Concept

Been a while since I did a motoring post. Isn’t this wonderfully retro? It’s just a pity Cadillac is still working with that pig-ugly grille. (With apologies to pigs.)

Cadillac Ciel Concept

Cadillac tells us that this is not a direct preview of its rumored flagship, but we think it should be. The Ciel—pronounced “CL,” it’s the French word for “sky” and not, according to Cadillac, stolen from some German luxury brand—concept unveiled on the eve of this year’s Pebble Beach weekend has all the presence of any great halo car. The long, low, all-wheel-drive droptop has four doors (rear-hinged in the back), and the open-air cockpit just makes it easier to see the jaw-dropping interior.

via Car and Driver.

Q. What have The Tudors, Game of Thrones, and Webhamsters got in common?

A. Henry Eddard Beecher

Henry

Now I have to sleep in the same room as two people, one of whom grunts, groans, squeals and quacks with terrific might to achieve massive, forceful, gusts of wind; followed by whimpers of release and delight; and accompanied by barely suppressed shoulder-shaking giggling from me; all because burping isn’t yet in the repertoire.

Henry’s grand though.

Delicious Links 15/08/2011

  • Attackers have advantage in cyberspace, says cybersecurity expert Another great commentary by Bruce Schneier. Basically, nothing has changed, nothing is secure, there’s no magic bullet, and there’s an awful lot of cyber-bullshit. Of course the mainstream media have their fingers in their ears when Bruce speaks, because it would mean they’d have to cut back on the fancy panic-graphics.
  • Ruinous banks won’t apologise or even explain I have AIB chasing me for missed biz CC payments at the moment, despite the fact that they always go through on the next draw, because it’s “not policy” to change the DD date to accommodate how my customers pay. Some of these customers already have me on 3 months payment terms, I can’t afford to get ahead into next month. But despite the fact that AIB, in part, are the root cause of this situation, they won’t budge on a simple accommodation. Fucking assholes.
  • NYT: Stop Coddling the Super-Rich By the super-rich Warren Buffett. Dear Govs US and IE — if you’re not listening to this man, you’re not doing your job properly. He /wants/ to be taxed. Fucking tax him already.
  • Colour pictures of the Blitz
  • World War II: The Battle of Britain – In Focus from The Atlantic

UPDATE 19:53: On AIB above, I should point out that the branch staff have been absolutely brilliant, in stark contrast to BOI. They sent me the letter, but only in response to word from on high that credit policy needs to be tightened. Only fault I can find is that, again like BOI, the person responsible didn’t provide a name, just a squiggle. Please people, have the balls to sign your letters.

Suppressed Report Found Busted Pirate Site Users Were Good Consumers

Next time a pol cites studio or label guff, they should have their noses pushed in this, like a mongrel that crapped in the garden.

TorrentFreak: In fact, the study also found that Internet users treat these services as a preview, a kind of “try before you buy.”

This, the survey claims, leads pirate site users to buy more DVDs, visit the cinema more often and on average spend more than their ‘honest’ counterparts at the box office.

“The users often buy a ticket to the expensive weekend-days,” the report notes.

In the past similar studies have revealed that the same is true for music. People who pirate a lot of music buy significantly more music than those who don’t.

Obviously it would be of great interest to see the report in full, but it appears that is not going to be possible. According to an anonymous GfK source quoted by Telepolis, the findings of the study proved so unpleasant to the company that commissioned the survey that it has now been locked away “in the poison cupboard.”