Category Archives: Personal

A Cartorcycle? – WOOT! (before 2020 please)…

I’m not particularly materialistic and hardly ever feel the need to have the latest and greatest gadget – be that a big expensive gadget like a car or a small one like a phone. And when I do invest in something, you can be sure that pragmatic practicality, robustness, economy and value for money are top of the list of considerations. So it is a rare occasion when I see an item, or the concept for one, and think – I really, really ‘Want One Of Those’.

With my current interest in the automotive industry and the gathering pace of innovation that currently surrounds it, I have researched and reviewed many different automotive ideas during the last 18 months or so. One that has stood out particularly is the increasing convergence of the car and motorcycle.

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Bionic Ear research targets the brain stem

The Bionic Ear Show presenter Tobin May

The lipreading course I attend each week helps its students understand more about hearing in general, as well as teaching vital skills in dealing with its loss. This week, we had a presentation called The Bionic Ear show which gave an excellent insight into the workings of the ear and also the research currently underway to help correct the things that can go wrong. Aside from the engaging physical demonstrations of how the human ear receives and processes sound, the electron microscope footage in an accompanying video showed how incredibly complex the inner ear structure is and also examples of what a healthy, fully functioning hearing system looks like versus one that has been damaged. Continue reading →

An omen – perhaps?

This year marks a once in a lifetime event that only happens once every one hundred years.

I’m talking about significant dates from a numerical  perspective. It’s not quite on the scale of 11.11.1111 – but close. This year brings some fun date combinations such as 9.10.11 and also 11.11.11

A recent article I read in The Economist highlighted the fact that the number 11 is significant with numerologists as although it isn’t officially regarded as a palindrome itself, it generates them like no other number. I particularly liked this massive palindromic example… Continue reading →

Playing the Logo Game

Beyond the overt commercialism and religious hypocrisy debates about the Christmas break, it is a great time for families to get together and play together.  It’s often said, ‘the family that plays together, stays together’ and while we can all ‘make’ the time and opportunity to do this at other times of the year, life often gets in the way – so, for me, the Christmas and New Year break will always serve an excellent purpose in the opportunity it provides for family fun.

I also like the fact that despite the relentless rise of sophisticated electronic toys and computer games, the humble ‘board game’ still finds a space in many families’ collective entertainment experiences. Continue reading →

(20)11 predictions from the CMS coal face

I was described recently as a “self-proclaimed crusader on behalf of buyers”. Despite the rather condescending tone and context of the comment, I have heard from others that alternative views of web marketing and information management from those who spend each and every day as practitioners is welcome. Those practitioners who do post comment tend to get their voices drowned out of social media by the vendors, analysts and commentators who shout a lot louder and a lot more frequently.  So in the interests of living up to that label, here are some predictions for the coming year from the CMS coal face… Continue reading →