monkeyprojects

At the time Philips started working on CD-I the internet hardly existed in Europe. When I was working on the UK titles back in 1990-2 the Internet really wasn't on people's radar. Only as 1992 turned into 1993 did anyone think the AOL's and Compuserve's as this world would get anywhere.

Equally you miss out the biggest issue with most developments with CD-I the available disk speed and memory (even ignoring seek times) made most developments an interest combination of careful design and often luck. Watching that Mario interstitial with moving eyebrows I'm imaging the disk spinning desperately trying to load the next scene into memory. As an example I remember spending a week trying to work out how to minimise a MPEG video (quarter screen max) in such a way that we could run a seek and load up the background image ready for the next scene.

Its worth reading this review of the Tesla Model 3 http://www.thedrive.com/new-cars/17280/tesla-model-3-the-fir... which highlights issues with the cruise control in the Model 3 compared to the Model S as it was changed from a stalk to being part of the screen.

Sometimes things need to be actual switches as you don't have time to use anything else...

4 days NHS (the day job), 1 day private practice. That's typical for Consultants in the UK...

I'm in the UK not the US. The example is actually a friend who has watched his private practice (1 day a week) expand as he tried to reduce demand by increasing his rates.

Health care is the absolute prime example of a Veblen good as people are willing to pay for perceived quality. After all would you prefer the heart surgeon who charges $5000 or the one who can charge $25000

Watching my children I would argue its a desperate attempt to get children under the age of 16 using Facebook as they just don't.

Both children attend a Music group which has used a facebook group for years. The older children (17-18) all have active facebook profiles - the younger children don't they use Instagram and Snapchat...

If anyone is in project management the story about Kings Cross at Christmas 2015 is must read article on how what seems like the best contingency plans can go wrong https://www.londonreconnections.com/2015/know-run-story-behi...

Uber seem to be pushing the Black Cab issue here... A organisation that makes money from Uber was very quick to claim that the issue was due to TfL being pressurised by Black Cabs so I half expect it to be in Uber's briefing note pack...

They wanted a 5 year licence back in May but were given a 4 month licence and a requirement to resolve the issues that there were. 4 months later the issues are still there so what else could TfL do?

2 isn't true private hire cars are equally exempt see https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/congestion-charge/discounts...

I don’t except for signing on to other sites (its easier than creating and remembering a password) and for Wi-fi in Barbados (I’m not paying their mobile data rates).

And that is why I only have 1 friend on Facebook - my wife

This is a mistake all marketing people will make (hopefully just once but we all know that won't be the case).

The worrying thing is that the last similar social media fail was less than 3 months ago with Walkers Crisps showing various photos of mass murderers..

My viewpoint when talking about security is please sign this form and your bank can send your bank statements on the back of a postcard in full view of everyone.

For your convenience we will include your PIN number and card number in full on all correspondence.

So a business that requires bulk advertising to recruit both drivers and riders (in the U.K. Driver recruitment is one of the most common radio adverts on commercial stations) could survive without advertising..

Given that I saw my first tv advert for uber last weekend (focused on rider recruitment) I suspect that instead of cutting advertising costs uber will have no choice but to continually increase them over the years

It's worth emphasizing that Sarah ended up hiring body guards for the weekend following the comments on the advice of others.

There was definitely more to it than just an idea

All 3 hobbit movies where released in the high frame rate format (albeit 48 frames not 60) and the general complaint was that they felt "soap opera"ry due to the way people felt about them. https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnarcher/2014/12/16/hate-the-... Is a decent commentary on the issue

I have joked to Sarah in the past that she has to be careful that pando didn't become "what the fuck has uber done today".

Mind you that isn't surprising given the continual behavior issues within uber and it's status as the biggest unicorn

It depends on the market you look at.

At the moment uber is very useful (heck in the past fortnight I have used it in Bangalore, Helsinki and Vienna) but it does have a serious weakness - Uber competes on price but there is no evidence that it is profitable nor (far more worryingly) that it knows how it can make itself profitable.

Hence it's issue is very much similar to twitter - uber in many countries owns the sector, it just hasn't been able to find a means to make a profit from the sector.

Technically they may not be able to in Europe.

If you look at how a taxi works, I request a taxi and I pay the driver directly. Who the money I pay the driver is split is then a private deal I nor the government know nothing about nor care,

If I order an uber (for reference, I never have for I've never been anywhere that doesn't have an equally good or better taxi service) you don't pay the driver you pay uber. Uber then pays the driver and many European governments regard that relationship as one of employer and employee.

As someone who worked at Boo.com - escaping in Feb 2000 as its death become obvious to anyone, I don't think boohoo.com capitalises on boo.com - most people have never heard of boo.com..

Was going to say the exact same thing.

I wonder what pud is up to?

I don't believe US banknotes change design that frequently. In europe bank notes change design every 5-10 years and quickly stop being legal tender a 3-5 years afterwards...

The UK has always been unique like that. A lot of it has to do with there only really being 3-5 large banks so checks were always quickly verified and cashed making avoiding large sums of cash easy.

And once people get out of the habit of carrying large quantities of cash around they rarely go back to it...

That isn't such a problem nowadays as you could move the business model from outright purchase plus support to a software as a service model with monthly fees and minimal support costs.

Wonderbread didn't need to take all the market to make the bakery unprofitable, just reduce bakery sales enough (say 30%) to make it unsustainable....

After all profitable only comes after fixed costs are covered. If sales drop below the amount required to cover those fixed costs the business is no longer viable....

Given that the car was a freebie for referring 11 Model S sales I doubt it was a friend.. See http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/20/11466810/tesla-model-x-for...

My guess is that this was the first one Ford was able to buy at any price....

That's get little to do with this issue and more to do with Amazon insisting of formatting rules being met.

Especially as none of Walter Jon Williams books seem to be in kindle unlimited

I'm sure micro usb is the required standard in Europe for mobile devices

I said elsewhere that it's years since I saw a $1=£1 conversion rate