April 2001 Archives

Well, for about an hour anyway. But we took advantage of it to climb Arthur's Seat which was totally cool and had awesome views. My photos aren't ready yet, but here's somebody else's... and if you're curious about this big lump's geological features, check this out.We also walked around the Royal Mile some more, and visited St. Giles' Church and the Thistle Chapel.On an entirely sillier note, we've discovered a new band; well, new to us...Ladies and gentlemen, the incomparable, the one and only, Deaf Shepherd.Ah yes. Bagpipes.Back to London tomorrow...home Saturday...

The Satanic Hamster Dance. www.greymatter.org/satanichamsterdance/. Now when are we gonna go see some stuff? We're in Edinburgh after all. Jeez...And what the heck is this?

But we can laugh anyway. The Onion weekly infographic on America's response to hoof and mouth disease... the really frightening part is how close it is to reality. The Guardian ran an article in which a reporter went around to various touristed spots and asked passing Americans what they knew about the disease (also known as foot and mouth here); even offered them gas masks (if the masks were accepted, it was then revealed that it was a joke). My countrypersons responded brilliantly with answers like "it makes you walk funny".

I'm in Edinburgh. It is beautiful.This past weekend I was in Liverpool for a wedding. I didn't get to see much of Liverpool itself (mostly being at wedding-related things or in Chester) but did get to the Tate Gallery there. It was pretty cool, especially the painting of an old man in a pink dress that I swear looked like Dubya.That wedding was lovely too. I got to meet a bunch of people, including a man that helps run Merseyside Jewish Community.Tomorrow: the Royal Mile?

And I am checking my e-mail at easyEverything, a huge cybercafe with branches in many European cities. Oh yeah, and Paris isn't bad either.For an example of truly vile usability problems, try using one of BT's new webphone things. Half the machines seem to be broken already and the rest have what can only be described as touch-insensitive screens. And if it doesn't work, you can let them know by...sending an email? Hope they rethink their plan to start charging in June and do some redesigning...

An article about one of my professors at the School of Information Management and Systems, U.C. Berkeley. (Her classes were tough but fascinating...wonder what she's saying about the current Napster fracas). In other tech/school-related news, MIT gives away the goods. I find this project interesting because when I was in graduate school, I worked as a website designer for undergraduate courses at U.C. Berkeley. There was always a debate on what to put on the site and how to do it. And yes, it was a lot of work!