New Apple Reader

Geeks are all wound up about the iSlate, iPad or whatever the new reading device from Apple is going to be called. Will it affect book publishing as the iPod impacted the music industry? We'll know by the end of the day. It will probably resemble a book in the same way the iPhone resembles the bakelite telephone of the fifties.

Computers are thick

Don't accept this wanky notion put out by geeks that computers are clever. No they're not: they're dumb. For instance, as I look at the page of this blog now there's an ad for teeth whitening - which may well be gone when you read this. Although now that I've mentioned the words again, the ad might become a fixture. The reason it appeared was because I mentioned the writer Zadie Smith, whose first and most famous - though not her best (that was On Beauty) was White Teeth. So the dumb logic of the system says Zadie Smith - White Teeth - right we need to sell the readers teeth whitening. No they don't. They need to have a link to first novelists or to books or movies with a similar theme as Ms Smith's work. The human brain is just so far ahead of these glorified abacuses in any form of nuance. A lot more interesting too. That's why I'm into humanities and not boring mechanical clunking 'information technology'. Sadly that's where governments want to steer 'education' these days. Rant ends.

Well ,Hello again

Haven't been here much. In fact it's the first time this year. The day job and Uni have kept me busy. Lame excuse, I know. Of course it is. Passed a professional exam in the New Year. That was a pleasant surprise. Now doing Playwriting module in Birkbeck. Great tutor - a northsider. Reading O'Casey's 'Juno and the Paycock'. Wonderful stuff: dialogue rich and as a Dub I feel it is a part of the heritage. I've even got hooked on Samuel Beckett. Sublime. So much brilliant Irish writing around. New stuff too. I haven't forgotten the rest of the world either...