Just because I can…

Lately, Christmases have provided a good opportunity to sort through the various possessions still left in the UK.

This year, I came across a magazine cover CD sporting a video I remember watching over-and-over as a student. It shows Bill Gates announcing Windows CE at Comdex back in 1996.

While Windows CE never made the splash I had hoped, the video still represents an interesting moment in mobile computing history:

Yesterday we spent a misserable day in Aso. While it’s arguabkly one of the most attractive places I’ve yet to visit in Japan, the bad weather made it hard to find much to do.

A slight break in the weather did afford us the oportunity to glimpse into the ‘depths’ of the still-active Mt. Aso (photos to come). But, for much of the day, we sought out indoor pursuits - one of which was a 45 minute performance by trained monkeys.

Certainly something more to Japanese (or perhaps Victorian) tastes, alhough mobidly fascinating, it left a nasty taste in my mouth.

Through the ages there seems to exist a strange fascination with trying to make animals behave in more humanoid ways - making monkeys walk as bipeds, dolphins perform ball tricks, … etc. Sadly, these animals are more advanced and skillful in their natural habitats than we and it smacks of arrogance that we try to make them seem more impressive and intelligent by taking the out of these environments and have them emulate us.

End rant.

I’m now on holiday for the next couple of weeks, so posts may be a little less predictable…

If anyone wants to get in touch with me - I’ve not got any tech. with me - mail me at my gmail account and I’ll try to check it a few times:

jason 「dot」 morley 「at」 gmail 「dot」 com

In the meantime, I’ve posted some photos of our office trip to Hakone on Flickr.