The most horrible hotel in the world featured in Tone Knob by Nick Parker:
Then in 1996 they asked the new-kids-on-the-block agency KesselsKramer2 to help them sharpen things up – Which they did not by improving the hotel or doing a fancy re-brand, but by keeping everything exactly the same and proudly embracing how crap it all was. They started calling themselves ’the most horrible hotel in town'.
Does the Kindle Scribe replace a five year old Kindle Oasis?
My reading device of choice has been a Kindle Oasis (2nd model) I picked up at a Best Buy in Vegas in December 2017. It fast became my favourite little gadget. The Oasis was last updated in July 2019 - and Britt owns that model. It’s got a warmth setting and a smidge larger battery, but it’s basically the same.
So I’ve been waiting patiently for an Oasis upgrade or replacement. In the meantime I just have to recharge my Kindle every two days instead of every two months, no big deal ya know.
New Amazon product of the month, the Kindle Scribe, has been drawing lots of Remarkable 2 comparisons, and avid readers of this blog might remember I was a big fan of my Remarkable.
Since that review a few things have changed:
- I sold my iPad Pro because the Apple Silicon MacBooks married with a Remarkable 2 was a happier solution.
- I’ve now sold my Remarkable tablet because I’ve been downsizing in preparation for living in Mexico and travelling around.
- My Kindle Oasis remains unchanged, but desperate for replacement.
- I’ve also bought an iPad Mini because size - but it’s a terribly underpowered machine so that’s being relegated to “TV on airplanes and buses” duty with my kids.
So does the Scribe fit the Remarkable-loving, iPad-replacing, Oasis-upgrading dream I’ve been looking for?
It seems to be a really close fit, with one exception. The Oasis would have been one of the largest Kindles produced at 7", but the Scribe is a 10.2" device, almost matching the Remarkable, and I think that’s too big to lay in bed reading a book from.
So we wait.
We called our Airbnb the Tugun Pause because a few times a day you get to take a one to two second pause in your conversations
How good is it when you just find The One
I call this one “Jetstar flight captured over Brisbane with a manual focus lens”
If you’ve ever wanted to use our dishwasher, TV, or closet? You’re going to love the tugunpause.com.
Are there any signs we should look out for to see if Goldie is being fed enough?
Ted Gioia’s predictions of the music industry in 2032:
“A legitimate musical counterculture will arise, with a cadre of new artists achieving superstar status while rejecting the roles of influencer and content provider. The motto “music comes first” will be a key part of their marketing message. The movement will have a name, but that word doesn’t exist yet.”
“Individuals who can identify rising talent will set up their web channels, and fill the role once played by the A&R department at a record label. But there’s one big difference: they can do everything themselves without a huge corporation behind them. If these talent scouts have a web channel with a few million subscribers, they will have more clout than Sony (which, by the way, currently has a pathetic 40 thousand subscribers to its YouTube channel) or most other labels. They can sign artists, showcase them online, and build their audience—acting as sole operators, but with the influence of a big business.”
Cam Wilson in Web Cam on crime reporting:
“There’s a lot of good criticism of crime reporting. It fosters systemic racism. Crimes are reported on because of the novelty factor rather than merit. A lack of follow-ups means articles rarely show the full story of a crime (including if charges are dropped). It tends to uncritically share the narrative of police, even though they are unreliable narrators. And above all else, it publicises one of the lowest moments of someone’s life and probably makes it harder for them to right the ship.”
Andrew Greene reporting on the Optus data thief (they like to call the person a hacker):
WARNING - do not click on latest link from alleged Optus hacker. IT security experts confirm it “tries to use drive-by and explicit download techniques to install executable files - this appears to be an attempt to capitalise on the publicity from the hack to setup a future hack”
Optus’ lack of leadership in this data crisis will be its legacy.
The end of the shared experience that is music
Larry Miller, NYU, in The Future of Music podcast on The Verge hosted by Ariel Shapiro:
“The magnitude of most hits is smaller.”
“We’ve also noticed that the amount of music being uploaded and the vast majority of the new music is never listened to.”
“The streaming services, including TikTok, are great at breaking a track. They’re less great at breaking an artist and a career.”
Music has been such a shared experience - shared joys, shared sorrows - it’s such a valuable part of our cultural fabric that I wonder what the current state of music means for the fabric yet to be spun.
If I’m by myself I rarely listen to music, but with friends in the car, at concerts, or even sharing links to songs amongst us is where the songs make sense.
Is the divestment of the collective music experience another pointer towards a divided people?
Zane Lowe with Stevie Nicks is an beautiful podcast conversation not only about Fleetwood Mac, but also about Tom Petty, Prince, Harry Styles, Neil Finn, Miley Cyrus and The Gorillaz. The entire Zane Lowe interview series is a great show for music lovers.
Smashing a spacecraft into an asteroid
Emma Elsworthy in the Crikey Worm this morning:
The nerds at NASA are going to smash a spacecraft into an asteroid hurtling through space this morning. It’s going to happen about 11 million kilometres from where you’re sitting now — and you can watch a livestream from 8am. The recipient of our pummelling will be a 163-metre-wide asteroid called Dimorphos that is orbiting a larger, 780-metre-wide asteroid.
It won’t be one guy and a joystick controlling the trajectory (how cool would that be?) — NASA says software will determine the point of impact. There will be a nail-biting moment in the last 50 minutes, however, when the software will need to differentiate between the larger asteroid and Dimorphos, as BBC writes.
Assuming all goes well, the livestream will cut off when the spacecraft hits, but luckily a mini satellite released from the spacecraft a few days ago will record the whole shebang from 50km away. Success will be measured by whether Dimorphos’ orbit (about 12 hours at the moment) is shortened by 10 minutes. But the chances are slim that we’ll actually need to do this in future — scientists reckon we’ve identified 95% of all monster asteroids that could cause a global calamity. The other 5%, however…
Update
They did the thing.
Why so dramatic, Rockhampton sunrise?
iOS 17 prediction: an Apple Shortcuts Store. After writing my first semi-complex-but-bit-that-complex shortcut for Apple Shortcuts today I can’t believe there’s not an App Store for Shortcuts. But I reckon it’s coming, Apple loves a good % cut.
“The media coverage of vaccines and side effects is awful. They lack a philosophical framework and are unmoored. This article nicely shows how that is the case. Whether they choose to improve is beyond me. They have too much allegiance to the Biden administration, and have failed American boys as a result.”
Qantas T80 seat selection reminder shortcut for Apple Shortcuts
Reading a recent Point Hacks email about the ol’ ‘T-80’ Qantas rule reminded me of an Apple Shortcuts shortcut I’d been meaning to make for a while. I’m no programmer, or Shortcut-writer, but I whipped the shortcut up today and I think it works really well.
Stealing this next image from Point Hacks, extra seats open up 80 hours out from the flight:
If you’d like a reminder about that opportunity, download the shortcut on your Apple device now. It works on Mac, iOS, and iPadOS, basically anywhere Shortcuts works.
This Shortcut looks for a calendar entry in the next year that has the letters QF in it, assumes that’s a calendar entry about a Qantas flight, and can create a reminder 80 hours before that flight to remind you that most seats that are blocked due to status are now unlocked and you’re able to select that seat if it’s not already taken.
It’s set up to look in all calendars and create a reminder in my Travel Reminders list, but you can edit it to your liking. My Qantas flights appear as part of a Tripit calendar subscription and this works fine.
Here’s how the Shortcut works:
It looks through my calendar and shows me all the calendar entries coming up that contain the letters QF, luckily for us the English language doesn’t afford us many words that use the letters q and f together, so it’s an easy selection.
The Shortcut displays the flights, you choose one, and a reminder is created along with a link to the Qantas manage your booking page.
If you use a different calendar system or a to-do/reminders system, it should retrofit if your system talks to Shortcuts like most do these days.
If I was going to make a travel vlog this week my episode would be about how you should just stay at home again, airports are terrible, it’s quicker to walk. All hail HRH Lord Joyce, the decider of all airborne transport matters.
Formally: Todays flight issues involved a B717 being ill, and then Rockhampton’s Air Traffic Control being unstaffed until 9:30am so we have to wait in Brisbane until there’s air traffic control.
It’s 2022 and there’s no real solution for blisters yet
Started this morning in a cheap Brisbane hotel with a 4am alarm and a 6:05am flight at gate 16, which became a 6:05am flight at gate 26, which transformed into a 7am flight back at gate 16, and it’s just changed it’s haircut so it’s now a 7:15am flight at gate 16. I’m excited to see the journey this Qantas flight takes.
Hwoever, this most definitely is the wrong week to be breaking in new Blundstones.
It’s 2022 and there’s no real solution for blisters yet. How is this?
I’m impressed by how many other people made the stupid decision to catch a 6am flight
