Monthly Archives: August 2006
Benefitting From Product Sabotage
The BBC is running an article by Tim Harford (the ‘undercover economist’) about how comapnies ‘sabotage’ certain of their products in order to create artificial differentiation. Used to your benefit, this practice can be an excellent way to save quite a bit of money. Computer firms are notorious for creating fake ‘versions’ of chips that run slower by breaking the solder on one bit, something that is easily fixable if you know what they did, and in the past has gotten me a much faster CPU than I paid for. Starbucks has a ‘short cappuccino’ that, if you know to order it, is the best deal going there – but they won’t tell you it… Read more
Libraries, Wireless, Rain and Russian Anti-Folk
Luckily for me, my local library has wireless internet access, though the speed leaves something to be desired. However, it will suffice for now, as we wait for BT to get around to turning on our phone. It is a plus that the library is less than five minutes from the apartment on foot. Not being able to get online reliably is driving me nuts, not least because it is my only means of communicating with the ship that is carrying my possessions across the ocean. We went to see Regina Spektor last night at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire. The show was excellent, and we were most impressed with the crowd. Even though we booked tickets for upstairs in the hopes of avoiding the worst of the crowd noise, everyone was shockingly well behaved during the show – no talking or smoking or general mayhem as we were used to from US crowds. I hope this is the shape of things to come. If so, I might be more inclined to see more “slower” shows. Notting Hill Carnival is this weekend, so I predict lots of… Read more
Uhhh….come again?
My life in England so far: Me: “I’d like to open a bank account please.” They: “Do you have some money?” Me: “Yes.” They: “Excellent, here you go.” Me: “I’d like to rent a flat” They: Do you have any money?” Me: “Of course.” They: “Brilliant! Here’s your keys” Me: “I’d like to make a phone call from my house please.” They: “Maybe later.” Me: “Well, then I’d like to make a mobile call in the mean time.” They: “We will need four forms of ID, three of which must be from the government of Eritrea, proof that you have lived in the UK for 50 years and at your previous address for at least a decade, three letters of recommendation from current customers of ours that have never had a late bill, a blood sample and a personal guarantee from yoiur mum that you are not a bad person.” Me: “Fuck.” So BT will not be turning my hime phone on until at least 1 Sept, which means that with the complete lack of cable modem options here, it will be another couple of weeks or so before I have a reliable… Read more
Bah!
My life in England so far: Me: “I’d like to open a bank account please.” They: “Do you have some money?” Me: “Yes.” They: “Excellent, here you go.” Me: “I’d like to rent a flat” They: Do you have any money?” Me: “Of course.” They: “Brilliant! Here’s your keys” Me: “I’d like to make a phone call from my house please.” They: “Maybe later.” Me: “Well, then I’d like to make a mobile call in the mean time.” They: “We will need four forms of ID, three of which must be from the government of Eritrea, proof that you have lived in the UK for 50 years and at your previous address for at least a decade, three letters of recommendation from current customers of ours that have never had a late bill, a blood sample and a personal guarantee from yoiur mum that you are not a bad person.” Me: “Fuck.” So BT will not be turning my hime phone on until at least 1 Sept, which means that with the complete lack of cable modem options here, it will be another couple of weeks or so before I have a reliable… Read more
Setting Up House
Today we get furniture! Since we arrived on Wednesday, we have been sleeping on the floor, but today our Ikea furniture arrives. Hopefully we will have it all assembled by tonight. Man, has this move been… Read more
Missing In Action
…I know I have been MIA recently, but I think I have a reasonable excuse… As of 9:40pm EST tomorrow I will no longer be in the United States. Since my last entry I have: Sold our house and 90% of its contents Arranged shipping for the remainder of our belongings Sold our Car and motorcycle Found homes for our two cats and two dogs Found an apartment in London Gained work permits and entry clearance to the UK Settled all of our affairs in the US Right now we are in New York hanging out with friends until we take off tomorrow. More when we reach the… Read more
Taking a Break
I guess it’s pretty obvious that Myth Dispeller is in a state of sleepyness. Jon has been in the throes of a rather formidable cross-planet move. Once he resurfaces, we’ll pick up where we left off around here… Read more