Kurt Hasley

Je surfais sur les premiers dessins de xkcd et je suis tombé sur celui-ci : xkcd.com/46

Et puisque l'auteur insère fréquemment des "commentaires-mouse-over" dans ses "strips" j'ai été intrigué par la référence à Kurt Hasley.

Et j'ai découvert ceci : Kurt_Hasley

Une découverte touchante. Il traduit si bien l'émotion et le beau.

En lisant des contes d'enfants

Il y a des fois où les questions d'une fillette de 4 ans demeurent sans réponses. Alors voici ma fille ;-)

Phoque ou otarie ?
Chouette ou hibou ?

Lien

iPod : "it's bound to fail"

...ou comment se mettre le pied dans la bouche !

The iPod? It's bound to fail (and the other predictions the experts would rather forget)

Sir Alan Sugar is not alone. Many of technology's greatest minds have been proved spectacularly wrong, as a new anthology of flawed futurology shows. By Amol Rajan and Andreas Wiseman

Thursday, 11 December 2008

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PA

Amstrad's Alan Sugar was amongst the iPod doubters before the MP3 became a global phenomenon

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X-rays: a certain hoax

Founded in 1660 by a brilliant coterie of English scientists, the Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, to give it its full name, has long been in the vanguard of intellectual advancement. Its record is not without blemishes, however. In 1883, Lord Kelvin, its then president, said: "X-rays will prove to be a hoax." Instead, few inventions have done more to accelerate the progress of modern medicine.

The telephone, how unBritish

In 1878, Sir William Preece, the chief engineer of the Post Office, said: "The Americans have need of the telephone, but we do not. We have plenty of messenger boys." But with nearly 80 million handsets in Britain alone – that's almost two per adult – we've never needed them more.

Television – boring

Televisions were first sold widely in the 1930s. So what came over Darryl Zanuck, multi-Oscar winning Hollywood mogul and founder of 20th Century Fox, when in 1946 he said people would "soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night". Alas, the X-Factor revolution was several decades off.

640KB of memory - all you need on a PC

Let's be fair to Bill Gates. He claims he was misreported when, in 1981, rumours circulated about his alleged view that nobody would need more than 640KB on their PCs. Most machines are sold with at least 2GB of memory, a mere 3,500 times the amount Gates allegedly predicted.

iPod: certain failure

Sir Alan Sugar, the Amstrad chief, has a reputation for straight talking. What, then, was he aiming for when he said, in an interview in February 2005: "Next Christmas, the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput."

The media players, designed by Apple, are one of the technical sensations of the past decade, selling 174 million units worldwide.

The Boeing 247 – unbeatably big

In 1933, a Boeing 247 capable of holding 10 people took flight. One unnamed engineer proudly declared: "There will never be a bigger plane built." True, if you discount the 727, 737, 747, and hundreds of other carriers, commercial or military. Perhaps keeping his name secret was the brightest idea that engineer had.

Rocket mail

One can't claim ignorance about the advent of email to excuse the following prediction, made by United States postmaster general Arthur Summerfield, in 1959. "We stand on the threshold," he said, "of rocket mail". Just imagine: letters attached to horizontally aimed fireworks. What would you send?

Computers are not really for home use

Digital Equipment Corp, better known as DEC, has been a pioneer of the US computer industry. But what gripped its co-founder Ken Olsen when he argued, in 1977, that "there is no reason for any individual to have a computer at his home". More than a billion people now have home computers.

The end of spam

What Bill Gates can't deny is providing the following nugget of perspicacity to the 2004 World Economic Forum. "Two years from now," the father of modern information technology said, "spam will be solved". As anyone with an email account can testify, the avalanche shows no sign of receding.

Nuclear vacuum cleaning

Just over half a century ago, Alex Lewyt, erstwhile president of the Lewyt Corp vacuum company, made a prediction to The New York Times. "Nuclear-powered vacuum cleaners will probably be a reality within 10 years," he said. Not with Dyson around they won't.

les vraies raisons derrière l'amitié

This strip fits soo well...

A funny abstract on human relations

Je cherche

La définition complète de Sybillin.
... à suivre ...

Stumble upon

Un site web sympathique qui m'a déjà décroché une trouvaille "Wow"

Le site : Stumble upon

et la trouvaille

Amusez-vous !

Développement durable familial - Bilan 2008

La preuve que toute notre bonne volonté ne s'est pas évaporée à notre retour de voyage autour du monde, nous avons posé des gestes concrets au cours de l'année 2008 pour faire notre part pour l'environnement. Ce n'est pas assez, évidemment, mais ce sont des premiers pas motivant qui vont se poursuivre l'an prochain. Le fait que j'en fasse un bilan est une forme d'engagement à faire mieux aussi ;-) Alors voici la petite liste des choses faites chez nous:

Achats
- Nettoyant à comptoir Bio;
- Liquide lave-vaisselle Bio;
- Savon à linge Bio;
- Lumières de Noël à l'énergie solaire.

Projets
- Remplacement des thermostats bi-métal par des numériques;
- Remplacement des ampoules brûlées par des fluo-compact;
- Isolation des combles de toît;
- Remplacement de la thermopompe.

Gestes
- Réduire le débit du robinet pendant que je me brosse les dents ;-)
- Réutilisation des calorifères de mon beau-frère dans notre sous-sol;
- Rachat des émissions de carbone lorsque je voyage en avion;
- Transport au bureau via le train de banlieu plutôt que d'acheter une seconde voiture
- Gestion des déchets toxiques issus de nos rénovations (batteries, peinture, gazon coupé).

J'ai le goût d'ajouter réduction de la consommation mais nous n'avons aucun mérite. Nous n'avons pas réduit grand chose étant donné que nous détestons magasiner. C'est vraiment vrai et ... c'est bon pour les deux. Alors le 1er des 3 "R" (Réduire, Réutiliser, Recycler) pour réduction... nous n'avons pas de mérite.

Et l'an prochain la pelouse bio, le compostage et bien d'autre.

Et vous ? Dites-moi si vous avez de bonnes idées !!