Lately I’ve been mostly listening to jazz. Acid jazz, Nu-jazz, Downtempo and such. As a consequence, I had to widen the ‘track length’ column in my music player. Just so you know.
Author Archives: mpj
Everyone must have a view on Web 2.0. This is mine.
There’s an interesting Economist story about the Chinese phenomenon of ‘team buying’. It is an activity whereby a group of people interested in buying, say, electronics meets up at a specified time, goes to a shop and uses the volume of the mob to negotiate a good deal. You know, in the non-violent way. The [...]
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Lemon curry?
The main benefit of studying computer science for five years in "one of the most prestigious British academic institution[s]" is that you feel slightly superior to a middle-aged sales guy who attended a half-day, Microsoft-sponsored training course at a plush hotel. A week ago I bought a super-cheap Samsung S600 digital camera from the Surrey [...]
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London hospital trivia
According to the Wikipedia article, St Thomas’s hospital “was described as ancient in 1215 and was named after Thomas Becket – which suggests it may have been founded after 1173 when Becket was canonised. However, it is possible it was only renamed in 1173 and that it was founded when St Mary Overie Priory was [...]
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Bread queues are back
Tesco is the largest retailer in Britain, with about 30% market share in UK grocieries. Why is it, then, that Tesco is absolutely hopeless in managing its supply chain. Observe what the bread shelf looks like on a typical Saturday afternoon at a large, 24h supermarket in Surrey Quays, London: I know several people who [...]
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