Oppenheimer's deadly blog
27 May 2005
Knowledge is money
10:01 For a while now I've been involved, to varying extent, with the Science Advisory Board. This is run by essentially a bunch of marketeers, but with a crucial difference. They recognize the value of the information (buying habits, reagent requirements &c.) that research scientists have and are prepared to pay the consumer directly for this marketing information. Not in a 'chance to win a $TOY' sense, but through a rewards catalogue for each and every survey you complete - and not just for one or two out of hundreds but everybody who participates. This is a model that directly rewards the consumer for their information.
I've started receiving spam sponsored by Invitrogen asking me to take part in surveys, and the 'chance to win an iPod'. This is a way of unlocking (what they hope to be) the same information on the cheap. I'm guessing they're scared of the SAB model, and are trying to get the same quality information for less. And frankly, there's no real benefit to the consumer in return for yielding their valuable market information. I could fill in dozens of surveys and not get a thing. Why should I then be truthful?
I'm also a bit pissed off at the spamming tactics of research@biosurvey.com. If you look at their website, it appears to be an email harvesting outfit. Information is power; it is also money. You have a marketing value in addition to your purchasing power - use it.
25 May 2005
Heavy fuel
08:59 The good thing about Episode I was the noise that Sebulba's pod racer made. A really grunty thunk-thunk-thunk. And in Revenge of the Sith a similar noise was heard coming from various ships (mega dreadnought vs dreadnought battle scene by the way. Broadsides in space. Worth seeing the movie for that alone), but this time it seemed oddly familiar.
Then when I started the car to come home, I realized what was so familiar. Those space ships are diesel-powered! And that nicely segues into a page about the most powerful diesel engine on this planet, which I've been meaning to draw your attention to for over a week now.
24 May 2005
Arrrrrrrrrrrr!!
13:19 I don't usually do this. . .
My pirate name is: Captain Roger Read
Even though there's no legal rank on a pirate ship, everyone recognizes you're the one in charge. Even through many pirates have a reputation for not being the brightest souls on earth, you defy the sterotypes. You've got taste and education. Arr!
Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.
20 May 2005
Waste management
16:08 Whatever happened to this week? Anyway, there's a splendid deconstruction of the disposable versus washable study at the Grauniard, which you should go and read. Highlights include Eight million nappies are sent to landfill every day in the UK. To say that throwing them away is no worse than washing them is, to me, as logical as saying that there's no difference between taking your clothes off at the end of the day and tossing them in the bin. It can't help but leave me suspecting the influence of the mighty nappy manufacturers in all this somewhere. Bottom line is that over the entire product life cycle, washables still win.
16 May 2005
Elemental
20:32 While we're in a poetical mood, we might consider Tom Lehrer. The Elements song is online as a neat little flash animation, along with the lyrics and (a list of) the elements that hadn't yet been discavared.
16 May 2005
PERLous poetry
20:23 The Kooijman points me at Perl poetry. Thanks Charles, like I needed more things to read. As I write the most recent entry is quite superb -
sub pedestal
{
$name = "Ozymandias King of Kings";
$mighty = eval "$works";
$mighty=despair;
}
13 May 2005
Aeroplane graveyard
14:35 I'd heard about Yuma, and even seen it on the telly. But the sheer scale of the place and the number of dead aeroplanes (more than most European countries have in service . . .) has to be seen on Google Maps to be appreciated.
12 May 2005
von Neumann
14:35 Cool. We're getting Universal Constructors at last.
12 May 2005
Resistance
14:18 All right, so my secret is out. I served on the Western Front against Nazi Germany:
The rest of the article makes interesting reading too. Thanks to Kooij for the headsup on the picture.
06 May 2005
MG-R
16:00 Emotion
06 May 2005
Democracy
09:49 Four out of five people saw sense and didn't vote for Labour. That tells me we need to bring down the government by whatever means necessary. What's really interesting is that the map is mostly blue, especially in affluent regions. Which is good for Bliar - it means he can raise more tax and piss it away so we don't get any benefit from it.
05 May 2005
Duty
09:11 Vote. I don't care for whom; just vote.
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