Got to say I really liked Stranger Than Fiction. An excellent movie though, like the book within, the ending keeps it from greatness.
I also watched Night At The Museum earlier which was better than expected though, since I expected rubbish, still not particularly good.
My nerves are shot.
It is the 44th over, 5th ball, South Africa are 206/5 and need just 4 runs from 32 balls. At the crease, facing, is Shaun Pollock backed up by Kallis on the other end. Pollock is fresh, just 13 runs, but Kallis is in his 80s and looking solid.
Two good batsman, 4 runs needed, 32 balls and 5 wickets remaining.
Sri Lanka are beaten but somebody forgot to tell Malinga as he comes in and pops a slower ball at Pollock who misses and the ball takes a stump.
Nice ball Malinga. But no worries, we have 4 wickets remaining and need just 4 runs. At this point the South African commentator says “4 runs for 4 wickets, I think I’ll back South Africa” to which the Sri Lankan commentator in all seriousness says “Oh I don’t know, we’ll see.” Ho ho, funny.
Malinga comes in to bowl at Hall, the new batsman. He fires a yorker at Hall who reaches far forward and knocks the ball high into the air and straight into a safe pair of hands. Out.
Another nice ball, Malinga. Still OK for South Africa, 3 wickets for 4 runs.
Malinga is on a hat-trick but has to wait for Vaas to bowl an over. Vaas does a good over conceding just one run and Malinga comes back.
Kallis is facing, Malinga bowls and OUT! Malinga gets his hat-trick and South Africa are 207 for 8 having been 206 for 5 just a short over ago. Still, we only need 3 runs and Ntini comes into bat. He is not a great batsman but he can make a run or two when needed.
Malinga comes in to Ntini and sweet mother of god… OUT! Ntini misses by a mile and Malinga gets four wickets in four balls. Apparently that has never been done before in international cricket. Wow.
I’m sitting on the edge of my couch in Ireland tearing a pillow to pieces. One more wicket and South Africa loose. They need just 3 runs. Three bleeding effing runs!
Malinga into the new batsman, Laangeveldt, and… not out. Safe. Thank god.
I then takes South Africa from 46.4 overs to 48.2 overs to score three runs. The whole time the Sri Lankans look like they can win, their bowling is scary and our batsman are cowering behind bats. Peterson’s bat and stumps are shaved many times, a gust of wind would have made the ball touch and he would have been out.
Very, very poor from the South Africans and well done to the Sri Lankans. Nerve wracking stuff.
I go for a lie down.
Fascinating how tehnology is entering popular culture at an accelerating rate:
Kallis to Silva, OUT, Gibbs does a Jonty! Remember that Inzamam-ul-Haq run out in 1992? Silva pushes a length-delivery on the off side,close on the off side and wants a run. Dilshan doesn’t agree with that assessment and sends him back. Too late. Gibbs charges in, picks the ball and flies into the furniture. Gone! A YouTube moment.
Steve Poland of TechCrunch says:
Currently, people are using “@(username)” to publicly reply to other Twitter messages — which can be annoying if you’re a friend of a user that is replying to what another user said (and you don’t even know what was originally said).
I disagree. I like it. It has led me onto some interesting conversations on Twitter, conversations I would not normally have heard. When I read one end of a conversation I can decide whether to follow it by adding the other side, or not. Up to me and no hidden messages or back-channels.
A fascinating brief to the news print industry by Oliver Reichenstein:
News organisations cannot continue to ignore the global shift from institutionally controlled media to user controlled media. They have to redefine their processes and face the obvious question: Do we still need old media for news?
There are concepts in there but also pragmatic instructions on what to do.
Letters to the editor is often the most successful section of a newspaper. Why is that? Because web 2.0 is a new fashion that will disappear soon? Or because the curiosity in what real people think is human, all too human?
So true. Web 2.0 is the humanising of the web and the pulling down of the old guard’s walls. Not to destroy them but to include them in our global conversation.
1. Reduce number of banners per page to one.
2. Increase banner size.
3. Distinguish clearly between ads and content.
4. Kill all pop up windows.
5. Forbid animated and amateurish banners.
Funnily enough as much as I think the New York Times Reader is a failure (being a desktop-bound, closed app.) I do think their advertising is excellent. One per page, quality, non-intrusive.
Truth is: We need paper for books, yet we don’t absolutely need paper for news – it is just a nice to have option.
I don’t disagree with this but I think “digital paper” or ePaper can be added to the arguement. Static paper will disappear. Dynamic, reloadable ePaper will replace it (it has already been said ePaper will become cheaper than tree-paper.)
It isn’t that newspapers must go online and dump the physicality of paper. Rather that newspapers become true media two-way channels and allow any device to read their content. ePaper, laptops, mobile phones, TVs, desktop computers, billboards, train station walls and the side of blimps. These are display surfaces on which the news of the world can be read.
John Collins quotes the following in his Vista article:
Hughes maintains that Vista is ready now and rejects any suggestion that users should hold off on upgrading until issues are addressed. In particular, he stresses the fact that Microsoft had its biggest beta testing programme in place for Vista including 17,000 Irish users. He advises anyone considering upgrading to download the Vista Upgrade Adviser from the Microsoft website which will warn them of any potential hardware or software issues.
I hope Mr. Hughes was misquoted or a bit flummoxed at the time as in that first line he is saying that even though there are issues users shouldn’t wait to upgrade. Upgrade now people and don’t worry that your scanner and fax software that you rely on to do your job don’t work. Don’t worry, it will work in a few months time when new drivers get released and then you can get back to your job. In the meantime be happy with your shiny new Vista.
A typical head-in-sand-out-of-touch-with-reality response from a techy awed by shiny buttons.
I tried Vista. I didn’t like it and reverted to Windows XP. Funnily enough I had no hardware issues (and this on a Macbook Pro, probably not your typical Vista machine) so I can hardly imagine how much more I would have disliked Vista had there been hardware issues.
The next few months are going to be tough for Vista as the millions of new PCs with Vista are sold and people try to connect their existing hardware to it.
As John summarises at the end the main problem is one of expectations. Vista was supposed to be a six, a home-run, a touch down in the end-zone. Instead it is a catch-up and platform for Microsoft’s next move. Sadly that was a miscalculation and their next move has been hobbled. I won’t be trying Vista Version 2 with the same hope I had for Vista.
A disappointing end to the game with Australia easily winning.
Smith leaving the field injured was the turning point. Kallis coming in as a repalcement was a mistake on hindsight.
Well done to Australia. I think they are superior in their bowling attack, more variety and vigor.
This is not about “easy” vs. “hard”, which are clumsy, imprecise words for describing a user interface. Easy what? Easy to learn? Easy to understand? Easy to remember how to use? Easy meaning “simple”?
There’s nothing complex or confusing about iCal’s event entry UI. And with specific fields for each item of data, it is more obvious than Backpack’s — but only for a first-time user, which is the wrong case to optimize for.
I love reading that. That optimising for first-time-users is wrong (generally.) I am in the middle of designing an RSS interface and am hitting this wall a lot. I put in UI elements that are aimed at fast, efficient, repeated use but which are difficult to figure out on first glance. They take a bit of learning.
In this short-attention span economy though immediate comprehension has some value. Striking the balance between grabbing a users’ attention and keeping them is difficult.
Easily the nicest feature in 37Signal’s new Highrise application is the email dropdox. You can forward emails from contacts to your Highrise dropbox and Highrise will scan the email and either create a new contact or attach the email to an existing contact.
It is an easy and quick way of populating your contacts list in Highrise.
Otherwise the app. is another good example from 37Signals of light, focused and useful app. development.
Saying that I won’t be using it as it is another contacts data-silo that doesn’t integrate with anything else I use (my phone, GMail, my calendar etc.) Hopefully someone starts using the Highrise API to create some connectors.
I got my name in lights with notcelebrity.co.uk
A bit of fun :)