Infernal technology: the automobile

The Editor,
The Times
29th September 1899

Sir,
I wish to express my dismay at the appearance of the automobile on the roads of England. This increasingly popular form of travel heralds a severe deterioration in the standards of transport of people. A good horse and light buggy provides a quiet, gentle, reflective and throughly pleasant mode of travel. The motor car on the other hand is noisy, smelly, and much too fast for safety. Furthermore, as seems likely, the cost of the motor car is falling below the cost of maintaining horses, and the development of the ominbus with up to twenty passengers, will mean that travel of longer distances will be economic for the lower classes which will lead to the deterioration of roads and crowding thereof. Furthermore, there is the likelihood that crowds of unruly people will congest popular places of leisure.

On a personal level, we must note that Man's relationship with the horse has been treasured by many people for thousands of years and may be lost if this trend continues.

The so called advancement of technology in the form of the automobile may have some benefits, but overall, its introduction is to be resisted because it disturbs our way of life.

Yours faithfully,

Disgusted.

Sharing images smoothly

This is not to show off my holiday pics (well, not entirely) but to demonstrate Picasa's nice slideshow feature as well.

If you go to the web site (below) for this album you can access Goggle's integration of applications with Google Maps.

Central Australia

The book dead? Long live the book!

Books may be delivered in new forms, audio, digitised, purchased online, but their death has clearly been exaggerated. Google has embarked with some of the world's leading libraries on a project to digitise the world's books. These can be searched and for those under copyright, extracts can be read. For older books, they can be read in their entirety.

Since they have been scanned, old books can be seen in their original form. Sections can be copied as an image, or text, or as an embeded image, like one of the most famous opening lines of a novel......

So what to do with your blog?

So now that everyone has a blog, what to do with it? Well...
think about...


The blog format encourages thoughtful reflection. It is a good place to choose a theme, issue or topic that you want to say something about. It can be a little or a big issue. It should be forward looking, pointing in directions to go.

The other characteristic of blogs is that they allow comments. If you provoke comments then it is very likely a good blog. So read others' (check the public ones in your Netvibes or similar). If your blog is private, post a brief note on what it is in the Groups discussion set up for this purpose.

By the way, the slide show is yet another integrated feature of the Google empire. The photo management system Picasa offers to turn images into a slideshow. You can then embed them in your blog.

'Disgusted': on social networking

The Editor,
The Times,
London.
September 3rd 1841

Sir,
While there has been much correspondence praising the introduction of the Penny Post last year across Great Britain, I am concerned at a danger that has emerged from this so-called advance in communication.

I wish to express my dismay at the current fashion of young ladies indulging in the practice of letter writing for entirely frivolous reasons. While I do not disagree with the said young ladies, under the supervision of their mothers, writing necessary and polite correspondence to ladies with whom they may have indulged in social intercourse for the very proper justification of thanking them for hospitality or an invitation or making a necessary enquiry. However I am very concerned that this current fashion of young ladies writing entirely frivolous letter to friends of a similar age merely to engage in idle discussion about social activities, gossip and mention of the disposition of young men whom they have met or would wish to meet at dancing parties. Such letters have included reference to books written by the dubious hand of Miss J. Austen, of which little good with flow, as I have expressed in my previous correspondence to this newspaper.

Apart from the content of such correspondence, I am concerned for the young ladies' health which I believe will suffer if long hours are spent manipulating a pen in the awkward position required for proper writing. Furthermore, this insidious fashion will deprive young ladies of time more properly spent on respectable activities such as needlework, reading the Classics and vigorous walks.

While His Majesty's Postal Service can be of use, it is no substitute for real communication, man to man, nor should it be the cause of un-necesary communication. Frivolous exchange of social information can come to no good and I urge that the ready availability of the Penny Post not be the occasion for the corruption of the young.

Yours sincerely,

Disgusted,

Tunbridge Wells

[correction: date of writing was 3rd Sept 2007]