Category Archives: Top Tips

Advice, sometimes frivolous

Apple Mighty Mouse scroll ball cleaning


The scroll ball of Apple’s “Mighty Mouse” is useful but, like old-style mouse balls, it gets dirty and stops working. Apple’s cleaning procedure is pitiful. Stripping the mouse works: here’s a guide. All the best.

Tags: ,

Do something amazing.


Post Image

Give blood. So, there’s another pint (or so?) in the bank: Enrol here.

Tags:

The modern-day Malthusian: resources vs simple arithmetic


Bumped up from first posting on 17 Dec 2007, as I reflect again on sustainability. See also Wikipedia for an introduction, Jancovici for a summary of a classic treatise, and Friedman for an alternative, if now old, perspective. Albert Bartlett: The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function. I dare you not to watch them all, if you watch the first 2 1/2 minutes. Also here.

Tags: , , ,

ClubDriving mentoring


Yesterday, I delivered my first ClubDriving mentoring session in advanced driving. I’m listed as the Club’s Buckinghamsire mentor, but as my fellow members of the High Performance Club know, I have some work to do before I can claim true driving mastery. It’s a testament to the minimum standard required for the HPC that I seem to have provided some useful coaching. It was a good morning in beautiful weather. We set off in my Saab, aiming for quality and […]

Tags:

Safety first kids!


Post Image

These reflective stickers are black when the light isn’t behind you: well done 3M. Must take it on a track day this year…

Tags: ,

Canary Wharf transport: an opportunity to see the silver lining?


I wanted to hear a lecture in Westminster at 18:45 – Charles Moore for the CPS – but the Jubilee line was suspended for a signal failure and the DLR closed eastbound for a “passenger incident”. So, thousands waiting in the tube station, long queues for taxis and the westbound DLR access closed for crowding on the platforms and in the trains. Really quite unpleasant. At least the KTM has been carbon offset… I understand the Jubilee line has reopened. […]

Tags: ,

Visitor locations, 3 months to March 08


Post Image

Google’s analytics tool is superb: it turns out my readers are mostly in Oxford and London. Thanks for keeping in touch!

Tags: ,

Beauty and the beastly commute


Post Image

Top tip: the Canon Ixus 70 is great. And the commute has its beauty.

Tags: ,

A few landscapes and a demo of iPhoto web galleries


Producing this gallery with iPhoto and a .Mac account was as easy as selecting these pictures and clicking “Web Gallery”. Try clicking “Carousel”, bottom left. Too easy for words.

Tags:

Grand America Hotel, Salt Lake City, Utah


An excellent luxury hotel, built for the 2002 Winter Olympics. We stayed just one night during the transition from skydiving to skiiing.