A snippet of the (de)Tour de France, as they went by on the South Bank

Signs and sights on the south side of Summer Street

Guardian circulation tricks don’t impress the magicians

Sent out to snap for my blog, I wandered into International Magic, a shop in Clerkenwell. When I told them where I was from they tutted. A guide to magic was printed by my paper – the Guardian – a couple of weeks ago, and apparently some in the magic community were upset about the way many tricks were revealed within it’s pages. I quickly parried that the Times printed a magic guide as well, and went on to talk about the Guardian and other newspapers’ march into the digital future.

We talked about blogs, and how there is a growing problem of unreliability of reporting. She said that “Wikiwaki” was too often used without checking it’s accuracy, and predicted the death of blogging. The shop owner (Martin) complained about journalists with little or no knowledge on the subject writing about magic. I suggested that blogging does indeed have a future, and should be read with care as most are individuals opinions.

Martin and I also spoke about the shop and it’s history (it’s been there for 50 years). You can listen to the interview here.

We parted on good terms, they had both been a little more enlightened about the web, blogs, and how easy it is to join in. I promised to return and drop off my card, and to mildly rebuke the editors responsible for their bruising of our magic constituency.

A Barac on Barack

The thing about hte US election, like with most elections but more so, is that nothing much really seems to change. I mean I am interested to hear what they have to say, but am reluctant to read them because I really don’t have much faith that what is said will reflect the reality of his actions as prez. All the kerfuffle about iowa and New hampshire, have however got my attention. It’s a bit like the world cup . . as soon it gets exciting I become a bit of a fan.

Digitalia

Here we are, fondling the soft parts of the digital world. Journalists, designers and web developers from the all areas of the Guardian and Observer. I came here this morning on my bike, my wishes for the rain to stay away came to pass, and I cycled through a sunny, crisp morning. Now I am in the white, clean dungeon that is “ESD training room 1″, with a sports journalist on my right, and a preview writer on my left. Bill, with his soft Southern US accent, is calmly telling us all how to write a blog. What a pleasant experience it is!

Guns in college

I guess it’s difficultot contemplate changes to gunlaw in the US, when the people you are looking to regulate are armed!

Limitations are central

Good Design has to work within the limitations presented to the designer, be it shape, size , format or whatever. There has been some complaints around the place about the closed nature of the Apple iPhone, but those who complain don’t seem to take account of the limits inherent in developing a mobile phone.. reliability (which we all want from an Apple mobile phone) depends on controlling both the immediate OS and the interaction with the network.

“You don’t want your phone to be an open platform,” meaning that anyone can write applications for it and potentially gum up the provider’s network, says Jobs. “You need it to work when you need it to work. Cingular doesn’t want to see their West Coast network go down because some application messed up.” Steve Jobs speaks to Steven Levy of Newsweek

That being said, I would assume that part of the OS might be open to input via widgets.