Technology, Books and Other Neat Stuff

It's nice to see people reading your copy, and knowing it's getting plenty of exposure. That's why I was pleased to see Gemalto giving out copies of their house magazine, The Review, at MWC in Barcelona last week - as it contains an interview I did with IBM's cloud computing folk (go straight to page 28) and a column (on page 34) on mobile identity I wrote while at the Internet Identity Workshop last year.

With more than 30,000 people at the show, there'll be plenty who've now read my thoughts on just why we get so attached to our mobile phones, and why the smartphone is a sensor platform that helps mediate identity and context.

There’s one device that knows more about me than anything else does – my mobile phone. It knows who I talk to, and when I do it. It knows where I am, and when I’m going to be there. It knows who I’m meeting, what I’m meeting them for. It holds my social network, my business network, well, pretty much everything. It’s my life in my pocket, and it goes everywhere I go.

My mobile phone has become my identity, and my context. That’s a blessing and a curse. I have one place where I can find everything, and one place where I can lose everything. If my battery is flat, I lose that memory boost, and I can’t get it back. And what if it gets stolen? A stranger can be walking through my life, seeing my LinkedIn contacts, pillaging my online relationships and my favourite web sites and applications, taking advantage of any stolen passwords, destroying my finances and my reputation.

And now you get the chance to join them (without running the gauntlet of Barcelona's pickpockets and bag thieves) by just clicking on this link and then scrolling through the pages of the PDF edition of the magazine.

I rather like what they did with the image of me on the column, somehow they made me look suitably Byronesque!

We're at the Getty Villa, taking the archaelogical artistic time-travel trip back the Herculaneum. The collection of sculpture and art is beautiful, and I was especially taken with this little group of marbles.

It's an amazing place, and well worth visiting with a classicist in tow...

Poster spotted on the tube just now.

An "Inseminar"? Hmm...

The subtitle of The Philosophy Of Pink Floyd is "Careful with that axiom Eugene".

I thought that sort of pun was illegal in most states...

Outside the Moscone Center, the night after the SteveNote, someone seemed to have decided to show what they thought of the MacBook Air...

A cameraphone shot of lighting effects at Le Reve, the Cirque De Soleil inspired show at the Wynn. It may not as good as Ka or O, but it's certainly a damn sight better than most of the shows around.

The mix of aerial and water work is particularly good.

Shishito peppers are the ideal dish for Las Vegas. You're presented with a bowl of sweet peppers, sprinkled with writhing bonito flakes. Then the fun begins.

Who gets the hot one?

Most are mild, but every now and then there's one that bites back. It's a burst of several scovilles that shocks the mouth and stirs the tastebuds into action.

It's a gamble with every bite.

Mmmmm...

Day Three of CES has dawned bright, sunny and cold. We've got miles of stands to walk and an ever growing number of meetings in our diaries. I could spend ages writing a post about the event, but we've got to walk a chunk of the Strip in a few minutes. Instead I'm going to distill the last few days into a set of meaningless statistics.

Number of days the press events start before the show: 1.5
Number of times walked between the Venetian and the LVCC: 3
GB of press releases on memory stick: 9
GB of press releases on MP3 players: 4
Number of press conferences quueued for: 7
Number of press conferences to full to get in: 2
Number of keynotes attended: 4
Hours spent queuing for the Bill Gates keynote: 3.5
Number of maps of exhibit halls: 4
Number of times lost in exhibit halls: 7
Number of sessions attended: 5
Number of sesssions with Xena the Warrior Princess: 1
Number of sessions with Neal Stephenson: 1
Number of articles submitted: 5
Number of emailed announcements: lost count
Number of cups of coffee: lost count
Average hours worked each day: 19.5
Amount of sleep: not enough

Two days to go. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

Once more into the breach...

Flo may well serve the best gas in Radiator Springs, but Pixar's world only touches ours in a few places. One is in Radiator Springs real world inspiration on the high desert section of Route 66, Seligman. It's where Westside Lilo's Cafe serves some of the best cherry pie around.

An excellent place to stop on the long haul from Vegas to Sedona.

Mmmm, pie.

Well, we finally made it through the fog to Jersey, where we're cozily ensconced in my mother's flat by a chilly looking sea.

Bandwidth is limited here, so have a cameraphone picture of a christmas tree...

Season's greetings to everyone out there!