Phil Gyford (everything)

Links for 22 October 2012

phil — 2012-10-22T23:58:00+00:00

The rapidly increasing ideology of the US Republican Party: A chart showing the changing political positions of US political parties since 1789. I'd love to see something similar for the UK. (via Kottke)

Photos for 20 October 2012

phil — 2012-10-20T00:00:00+00:00

Infill

Arrested Development Documentary: Absolute Official, Last and Final Trailer

phil — 2012-10-19T21:49:11+00:00

Favourited on YouTube

This is it. THE final trailer in anticipation of our big release. This documentary celebrates this one of a kind, canceled tv show.

Links for 18 October 2012

phil — 2012-10-18T23:58:00+00:00

Night and the City • Articles • Xbox 360 • Eurogamer.net: A lovely description of exploring the 1947 world of 'LA Noire' with the author's father who grew up in LA around then. (via Infovore)

Links for 17 October 2012

phil — 2012-10-17T23:58:00+00:00

Over the Decades, How States Have Shifted - Interactive Feature - NYTimes.com: Really nice visualisation of how different states have voted over time. (via The Functional Art)
Our favorite computer bags: A good start for finding a decent bag. Plenty of backpacks.

Links for 16 October 2012

phil — 2012-10-16T23:58:00+00:00

Timpulse - Who Works With ‘Creative Coders?’: Handy and interesting. A “list of institutions—both EU and Stateside—that are using creative coding”. (via @RandomEtc)
Henderson - General - Henderson launches new plans for Smithfield Quarter: Description of plans for the west end of Smithfield Market. I am never optimistic about these things.

Butoh Dance Performance in Japan

phil — 2012-10-16T08:38:12+00:00

Favourited on YouTube

Part of Swiss Butoh dancer Imre Thormann's performance at Hiyoshi Taisha Shrine in Shiga (Japan) in summer 2006. The live music is by Swiss jazz pianist Nik Baertsch and his band "Mobile".

Links for 15 October 2012

phil — 2012-10-15T23:58:00+00:00

James Meek · How We Happened to Sell Off Our Electricity · LRB 13 September 2012: Plenty of people linked to this at the time, but I forgot. Now I am. A good read on who now owns the UK's power.
The Gay Path Through the Courts by David Cole | The New York Review of Books: Subscribers only unfortunately. But I liked this for its descriptions of how the Supreme Court rules on things, and how cases that are ostensibly about a particular crime are used to force a decision on constitutional issues. Also about how the Court tries (ideally) to follow, rather than lead, society.

They hate competition

phil — 2012-10-15T21:10:04+00:00

Posted in Phil Gyford's Writing

This article about the privatisation of the UK’s electricity by James Meek in the London Review of Books from 13 September 2012 (I’m still catching up) is well worth a read.

There are many good bits (where by “good bits” I mean “bits that make one despair”) but this section caught my eye:

…before full competition was established [in the electricity industry], he, the regulator [Stephen Littlechild], imagined he would act as a surrogate, a kind of State Competitor General, enforcing occasional price cuts to keep the private companies on their toes. In the end, he thought, the need for regulation would largely wither away. What Littlechild, an academic with no business experience, didn’t fully take on board was that the reason private companies compete with each other isn’t that they like competition. They hate it, and will only compete if forced to do so. Rather than competing with a rival on price or product or revenue, they’ll try to eliminate the rival firm and take over its territory by buying it; or reach an unwritten agreement on an oligopolistic cartel of a few big firms, carving up the market between them.

I don’t know why, among all the arguments against privatising certain industries, this hadn’t hit me before: “The reason private companies compete with each other isn’t that they like competition. They hate it.” Of course, yes.

Slender gains

phil — 2012-10-15T20:56:49+00:00

Posted in Phil Gyford's Writing

I’m fascinated by the idea of a society in revolution and revolt, mainly because I can barely imagine it. No matter how disgruntled or angry many people seem to get in the UK, very little changes suddenly, no matter the big marches or the occasional riot. Things trundle on, people still disgruntled or angry.

I can’t imagine what it would take. Even with Occupy last year, and the continuing trickle of occasional outrage about bankers’ bonuses, and ministers calling people “plebs”, and all that… on we go. I can’t imagine — from my comfortable, middle class, metropolitan point of view — what would make a mass of people rise up in any meaningful way.

Which is just some background rambling to frame this bit from a review by Ian Jack (subscribers only) of Katherine Boo’s book Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity (Amazon UK, US) in the New York Review of 5 April 2012:

What [Boo] discovered was that, though the poor might complain about the greed and self-interest of the rich, they complained about their neighbours much more. Poor individuals blamed other poor individuals for their predicament rather than expressing solidarity and taking their protests to the streets. As group identities based on caste, religion, and language began to wither, “anger and hope was being privatised, like so much else in Mumbai.” And not just in Mumbai, but also in Nairobi, Santiago, Washington, and New York.

In the age of global capitalism, hopes and grievances were narrowly conceived, which blunted a sense of common predicament. Poor people didn’t unite; they competed ferociously amongst themselves for gains as slender as they were provisional. And this under-city strife created only the faintest ripple in the fabric of the society at large. The gates of the rich, occasionally rattled, remained unbreached. The politicians held forth on the middle class. The poor took down one another, and the world’s great, unequal cities soldiered on in relative peace.

Which sums it up.

I guess this is a similar thing to how many people in, say, the US often vote for the Republicans against their own financial self interest — they simply hope to gain a slight advantage over those around them. (I’m simplifying of course; I know there are other reasons people vote a particular way.)

When I read that a couple of months back (I’m catching up) I noted that I should also link to some related article I’d read on the New Statesman’s site. No idea what that was now.

Links for 14 October 2012

phil — 2012-10-14T23:58:00+00:00

Some pointers for Natural Language Processing / Machine Learning — Gist: Not sure I'll ever need this, but Matt Biddulph has collected useful things he's found while getting to grips with this stuff, and I love it when people share their learning like that.

Links for 13 October 2012

phil — 2012-10-13T23:58:00+00:00

LED Light Review: Thorough reviews of LED bulbs. Doesn't seem to do little spotlights though. (via The Wirecutter)