confused of calcutta

In a conversation with Chris Locke, the subject of Google Sky came up. And so off I went. [Strange, the things one does when waiting for backups to complete].
When I got to Google Sky, the first thing I looked for was Arcturus. [Why? Because the story implied in its etymological origins intrigued me as a [...]

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I was doing some work on the Mac, with a lazy eye on the tweetstream, when I saw a reference to this:

It looks real. It feels real. Weird, unexpected, but real nevertheless.
I wonder how they figure out whom to “follow”. Shades of Big Brother is Following You.
We live in interesting times.
Incidentally, my thanks to Gaspar [...]

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We have mail.
Maybe I should say: I have mail.
For sure I do:

Physical or snail-mail arriving at work and at home
“Work” e-mail, usually received via BlackBerry
“Personal” e-mail, which for me consists of mail received at my .mac mail account
“Social network” mail, which for me consists mainly of Facebook messages (and the occasional LinkedIn mail)
SMS, usually received [...]

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This is a story about my grandfather’s teeth, and about the house where he took them out after meals. He died nearly fifty years ago, when I was 15 months old, so I don’t remember much about him myself. What I do remember is what I’ve been told, and sometimes it’s hard to separate the [...]

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1. Groups are here to stay. Period.
2. Enterprises, even governments, are nothing more than groups. Extreme forms of groups, but groups nevertheless.
3. Groups are made of people. So too are enterprises, so too are governments.
4. All this has been true for a very long time. But something’s changed.
5. What’s changed is the quality of group [...]

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You may have noticed that I’ve been somewhat quiet as far as this blog is concerned, just one post since late February. Simple reason. I had a bout of ‘flu at the end of last month, and felt disproportionately tired ever since then. As a result I’ve been trying to do less and sleep more; [...]

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John Martyn’s May You Never is one of my all-time favourite songs. It has everything: melody, lyrics, the warmth and delivery of a brilliant singer-songwriter, and, in my case, fond memories associated with people who aren’t around any more, in places that aren’t the same.

Some years ago, a friend told me he’d [...]

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