I was raising serious questions about the whole basis of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, and I actually went through considerable detail as to what I thought was wrong about it. Nothing I’ve seen in reality has changed it. I’m not denying that monopolies are terrible things, but I am denying that it is readily easy to resolve them through legislation of that nature.

Alan Greenspan

“When we have déjà vu, we don’t act on it,” Moulin says. “But these people refused to watch television, they stopped reading the newspaper.” The patients were what cognitive scientists call “anosagnosic” — unaware of their condition. They also found situations to be more than just familiar; they believed that they were really recalling them, so much so that they invented memories to justify that belief. They were, to use Tulving’s phrase, time traveling to a reality that had never existed.

– Déjà Vu, Again and Again, a fascinating NYT article from 2006 (via).

.. In any case, the Queen has made her first cinematic appearance – in the Bond movie segment – and deepened the admiration in which she is held in Britain and around the world. James Bond and the Monarchy – not to mention The Eton Boating Song… How can anyone call that Lefty propaganda?

We certainly didn’t spend the Beijing-style sums on fireworks – since the Chinese blew roughly the same amount as the British defence budget – but we unquestionably had the same global éclat.

The president of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques Rogge, made a truly excellent speech, in which he paid tribute to the role of Britain in either inventing or codifying the sports we celebrate at the Olympics. Only a small proportion of his speech was in French.

As I write these words there are semi-naked women playing beach volleyball in the middle of the Horse Guards Parade immortalised by Canaletto. They are glistening like wet otters and the water is plashing off the brims of the spectators’ sou’westers. The whole thing is magnificent and bonkers.

This is the blatant hurrah! Brits! Olympics! No real disasters, flag confusion, stadium key losing, lack of gold aside, patriotic glorious pride type moment. Raising my glass of Pimmm’s wistfully, from Bordeaux airport, soon to fly over aforementioned festivities on the way to SF! Go Team GB!

(source: Boris Johnson, Mayor of London (that still seems surreal over four years later), in his weekly Daily Telegraph column: London Olympics 2012: here’s 20 jolly good reasons to feel cheerful about the Games – Telegraph.)

…The real problem is that so many people have thought the internet would be an unalloyed good; in part that’s because it has had plenty of cheerleaders, especially companies that stand to benefit from it – especially companies that stand to benefit from its growth. And nobody likes to be the one saying “hold on” as everyone’s rushing to the door. But we don’t have to break the internet to improve it – just make people more aware that we’re social animals first and internet users second…

- Charles Arthur, The Guardian’s Technology Editor writing in The internet’s two-sided freedom.

Let’s take a look:
 

The smallest box is the French, the only one not to have separate compartments for each included item seen above. The largest is from the UK, thanks to the size of their plugs, the box includes special holes to accommodate the prongs, this being the only box in which the plug faces downward, which, actually, makes it appear more compact than it is. Nevertheless, the neat, compact French box appeals to me far more on an aesthetic level.

Thank goodness for insurance, which has saved me each time². The first, the 16GB black model was purchased on launch day in the UK³. The second, the black 32GB French model was a replacement in February 2011 after I managed to crack both front and back screens of the first. The third, and current model, was purchased in August in St. Louis, MO, after I drowned its predecessor in a distinctly unfortunate incident. So, back to a 16GB model again after having gone up to a 32GB it was.

I’d always opted by default for the higher capacity⁴ but whilst queueing for the iPhone 4 on launch day I was informed that the allocation of 32GB phones had run out. This was three hours in, and I wasn’t about to give up so I obstinately continued to queue for the next four hours, finally parting with a 16GB model. I didn’t initially have any trouble with the smaller capacity, having to be somewhat more judicious with my music collection was actually somewhat liberating. But I frequently found on trips without my computer that I hadn’t budgeted sufficient spare space for photos and videos I might take. So, when the phone finally became unusable⁵, I seized the chance to replace it with the 32GB model and wave goodbye to the days of deleting memories.

When iPhone#2 came to a uh watery end, and was declared dead despite a day inside the air conditioning vent in a frantic attempt to resuscitate, I went back to a 16GB⁶ model and for the first time since the iPhone 3G, a white phone. Interestingly, with the iPhone 3G I was incredibly uncomfortable having a white iPhone as at that point the iPhone didn’t have quite the same level proliferation, and a white model was seen as somewhat ostentatious, and indeed something of a step too far down the road. It stuck out like a sore thumb and attracted a rather ridiculous amount of attention, and I was distinctly ill at ease when using it in public.

Now, however, 3 years later, iPhones are everywhere in France, the UK, and the USA. So, I couldn’t be happier with my white, 16GB iPhone 4 which I intend to guard with my life⁷. Who knows, if I manage to keep this up I may even be able to give the iPhone 5 a miss⁸!

1. I hasten to add that I’ve owned each generation of iPhone, and only one of each until the iPhone 4. I’m not sure whether this says something about the solidity of the iPhone 4 versus the previous models, or just my increasing clumsiness.
2. I sense I’m one of the few people who doesn’t see insurance as an unnecessary additional expense, or even scam, simply because, I, uh, end up having to use it more than most. Must reverse this trend!
3. the first (and last) time I’ll be queueing for a phone, I’ll never get those 7 hours back, although I did get more than my fair share of free Starbucks coffee and cinnamon rolls out of it…
4. What if I go on that round the world trip I’ve been threatening, and need to store photos? What if I need that song, right now? etc
5. glass in your ear can render telephone calls rather hazardous
6. At the moment, I’m making a concerted effort to reduce both physical and mental clutter. Materially, I’m incredibly lucky to have more possessions than I really strictly need, and am attempting to find more suitable homes for most, or indeed all, without which one can get along just as well (that’d be most things, then). Downsizing the phone seemed a logical step on this journey.
7. 6 weeks and counting and it’s still alive!
8. I realise this sounds a tad ridiculous, but as can be seen I’ve not managed to resist a generation of iPhone yet. I’ll admit that the 3GS was rather nearing the end of its life, though. The lock button, was, uh, temperamental.

1. To no-longer postpone anything
2. To eliminate negative energy: no-longer try to be right, but try to be happy
3. That the most important thing for him was to be a good parent

The Apple TV preset in Handbrake makes uses of the “Large file size” option, which can be seen below:

Now, unfortunately, by default MetaX will choke on files from HandBrake created using the above Apple TV preset. To fix this, and therefore end up with working movie files, you need to enable 64-bit mode in MetaX from within preferences⁴ :

So, there you have it: in order to successfully pass files created using HandBrake’s Apple TV preset through MetaX, you need to enable support for large files within MetaX’s preferences.

1. Whilst I was initially sceptical about the second-generation AppleTV and its lack of onboard storage, this simple little box has turned out to be quite the media nirvāna
2. without which I’d naturally be unable to relax and enjoy my iTunes library
3. And so hopefully won’t have to re-rip 30 or so films!
4. As you can see, it’s helpfully labeled “Enable support for large files”.

Having recently had my previous Time Machine backup disk stolen, I’ve just set up the new disk with added encryption. Worth doing I think.

This may go some way to mitigating the embarrassment after last night's pitiful 1-1 draw between England and the USA. Bear in mind that I work with 30+ Americans.

American friends, is the Post in any way respected, or is it more of a Daily Mail-esque publication?

(via mark)