Nothing to Declare

• IBM taunts Sun, HP and VMware with $40 PowerVM hypervisor | The Register
  The hypervisor will replace the BIOS. Deal with it.
  (tags: virtualisation)
• 2008’s Top Leaders in Open Source Business - Linux World
  Congratulations to chums at Redmonk!
  (tags: opensource redmonk)

• Assessing technology: life after MQs and Waves
  Woo hoo - tools that help assess, rather than just shortlisting. All for it.
  (tags: analyst)

• Tech to the rescue | Steve Tobak’s views on dysfunctional corporate behavior - CNET Blogs
  The marketing legacy isn’t always a positive one, but fair comment.
  (tags: technology)
• A practical consumer fuel cell, coming soon | Speeds and feeds - Technology analysis by Peter N. Glaskowsky - CNET Blogs
  Its all in the header.
  (tags: fuelcells power)
• Global Digital Music Sales Up 40 Percent, But Overall Sales Down 10 Percent
  More grist to the digital music mill.
  (tags: mp3 onlinemusic)

• Study Finds Link Between Being Struck By Cream Pie, Diminished Social Standing | The Onion - America’s Finest News Source
  Essential reading for any analyst
  (tags: Analyst humour humor)
• Radiohead - Scotch Mist | Will Pate’s Blog
  Thanks WIll - for all those who missed the free (as in will) download
  (tags: Radiohead mu)
• Getting Ink: Do you know who I am?
  No.
• Recommendations - where do they come from? « Technobabble 2.0
  Interestingly doesn’t cover published media of any form.
  (tags: Analyst Influence SocialMedia Marketing)

• Businesses look to online world Second Life to create virtual enterprise
  Mike Oldfield invented Second Life. I didn’t realise that
  (tags: music secondlife “mike oldfield”)
• globeandmail.com: Ballet, with tubular bells on
  The mid boggles - one can only imagine the caveman section
  (tags: “Mike Oldfield” music)
• Why I still use Facebook, and other musings on social networks | confused of calcutta
  JP on that much-misunderstood Facebook. I jest - but it is, too.
  (tags: facebook)
• YouTube - Tracking fingers with the Wii Remote
  This guy’s a genius - makes it all look so simple, which maybe it is.
  (tags: wii video remote wiimote)

• Time Warner links web prices with usage - Yahoo! News
  Time Warner Cable will experiment with a new pricing structure for high-speed Internet access later this year, charging customers based on how much data they download, a company spokesman said Wednesday.
  (tags: broadband media)
• Flock Browser - Meet Your New Favorite Browser - Flock 1.0! | Flock
  Get it. Now.
  (tags: browser firefox flock)
• Flock rocks - and Microsoft is not going to take over the world. Deal with it.
  On Flock, innovation and Microsoft, from Jon’s IT blog
  (tags: flock freeformdynamics innovation microsoft mozilla odf ooxml)

• Richard Stallman: Where This All Came From (Aaron Swartz: The Weblog)
  Links between open source and free software. Interesting.
  (tags: op)

• Bringing wireless networks into the management fold
  Wireless network management from Jon’s IT blog
  (tags: freeformdynamics networking wireless security management)

My Christmas present this year was a Nikon D40X camera - I’d sold all my film SLR equipment a few years previously, and I was just waiting for prices to drop, and pixels to rise to the point where it made sense. I’m not a photographer, but I do enjoy taking photos - how fortuitous that my good friend and neighbour Paul Atkinson used to run a branch of Jessops, is a seasoned pro, and also has a Nikon.

Paul took me out the other day to capture a few sunsets: the difference between what I would have taken (think:washed out and hazy) and what he showed me how to do, is quite astounding. I have the latter as my screen background now - it might not win any awards, but it’s got my dog in and it works for me.

I was being a bit slow this morning - in more ways than one, as Liz and I headed off on our morning run. So, of course, I was wearing tracksuit bottoms, and at the weekend I had bought a black windproof top with a hood, which I was sporting as we headed out of the village. We were jogging past one of the outposts of the Royal Agricultural College just as a carload of ruddy-faced students drove out. Winding down the window, one of them cried - in a friendly enough way I should add - “I assume you’re running!” I responded with in a suitably nondescript manner and we went our separate ways.

It was only ten minutes later when I realised the alternative - horror of horrors - was that I had actually chosen to be dressed like that. With some relief the rain hit and I managed to muddy myself up enough to justify my purchase. Oh well.