The Oxford Bodeian Library‘s collection is one of the main tangible things that makes Oxford a world-class research institution. The troves of primary sources, obscure titles, and first editions make it a mecca for historical and literary research. This is a promise which I don’t think the Oxford Libraries live up to in practice, because … [Read more…]
It always impresses me the number of machines that can be made to work again just by banging on them. The gasman was at my house today looking into why the radiators on the top floor don’t heat. The first thing he did was take the plastic knobs off the valves and then proceed to … [Read more…]
They used to call them 3D accelerators, and eventually “graphics processing units” or GPUs, but these days graphics chips are so programmable that we might as well start calling them “general processing units.” (DVDs play the same game with “digital video disc” taking on the wider “digital versatile disc” moniker .) Graphics chips are becomming … [Read more…]
My iPhone was gimped, but not yet dead. The problem was with the “home” button, and being the only button on the front face, you can imagine it gets used frequently. It had lost the crisp, original clickyness and trying to press it was like using a sausage to play a snare drum. Sometimes I’d … [Read more…]