of plugs and adaptors

I haven't left yet, but the electrical outlets that I will encounter already haunt me.

Since I am going to present a paper at a conference, I'm taking a notebook (I'm taking printed slides too, you never know). I'm also taking my Rio 800 (MP3 player).

I bought the notebook and the Rio when I was living the US, so they both have US-style prongs (flat, rectangular). Here in Ireland the plugs are UK-style, contraptions the size of a Buick with three huge prongs that require a hammer to he inserted into a socket (the center plug is not only ground but also used to "open" the socket so the plug can go in, for safety reasons). So now I'm traveling to Italy, where the prongs are thin and cylindrical, and just two. Which brings me to the unpleasant subject of adaptors.

I hate adaptors.

(Is there anything else to say?). I am carrying all these adaptors from 2 to 3 prongs and back again, 110-220/240 V transformers.... it all ends up taking about the same space as the notebook itself. Wireless power transmission (ala Tesla) will probably not happen, so how about getting the world to agree on the shape of a plug? It's a pipe-dream, I know, but this is one of the many UI issues that commonly go ignored.

travel

Getting ready for my trip tomorrow to Sardegna (Italy). The flight will be slitghtly nightmarish (three planes, four airports, just to do 1200 miles or so). Still, the fact that I don't have to worry about currencies, exchange rates, and then disposing of the miriad of coins that you inevitably end up with is refreshing.

how the world didn't change

After Sept. 11 the phrase on the tip of everyone's tongue was "The world will change." How did we succumb to such wishful thinking? This op-ed from the New York Times reminds us of all the things that were supposed to change, and haven't, and of all the things that have in fact taken a turn for the worse, like the reduction of civil liberties.

more on thinking twice

About two weeks ago I commented on a post by Ray Ozzie and how it suddenly vanished. Apparently I'm not the only one who noticed. Here is another comment on the event and on the practice of some bloggers have of "rewriting history"

the politics of isolation

A Salon article on how the US administration is playing the isolationist game by ignoring international forums such as the World Summit on Sustainable Development (a.k.a. Earth Summit) this week. From the article:

"Not only have delegates repeatedly been quizzed on U.S. policy and its impact, but some of the most vocal criticisms have in fact been delivered in American accents. Furthermore, instead of asserting America's independence, its refusal to agree to any binding commitments here has suggested to many participants that it is suffering a bout of myopia."

One would wish it was only myopia and not arrogance or maybe even ignorance on the part of some US decision makers...

cooper on p2p and baseball

CNET's Charles Cooper compares the self-destructive attitude of professional baseball in the US, threatening strikes that alienate their fan base, and the self-destructive attitude of the music industry with regards to P2P. Shows that stupidity is not confined to the "content-creation industry".

what's in a name?

In the case of Windows Server, a delay in its release. Isn't marketing funny?

knowledge streams

Related to K-logs, John Robb on Knowledge Streams.