According to Amazon, I'm interested in buying 5kg of peanuts, a multi-purpose screwdriver, some lithium batteries, Katie Price's latest autobiography, an album by Rhianna, and Mellissa and Doug's Chunky Animal Puzzle. Though, in addition to wondering why people now seem to need several autobiographies...

It's fairly obvious that the Internet is changing everything. For those of us involved in the computing industry, that's no surprise - we're the people driving most of the changes. But it's recently become even more evident just how far-reaching the changes are; driven in part by the global financial...

My wife will tell you that I'm really not very good at getting the point of things. I mean, when it comes to making typically vital choices such as whether I want brown sauce or ketchup on my sausage sandwiches, I can't see the point of long-winded pondering and tortuous decision making. Just put brown...

So it's been an interesting week in the world of amazingly unbelievable new technologies. I can't make up my mind which is the most implausible: test-tube sausages, invisible military vehicles, or Boolean values that are only 70% true. It reminded me of the story about the young boy who asks his Grandfather...

One of the most amazing things about being in the US is the unending choice of stuff - everywhere. And that fact that everything seems to consist of all kinds of other things. Waiters in restaurants (except for the very high class ones) look at you gone out if you try to order a steak without three different...

They probably won't invite me over to Redmond again. After telling me for weeks about the wonderful summer weather there, it rained for most of the two weeks I was on site. Not many people would suggest that I have a magnetic personality, but it sure looks like the English weather followed me across...

OK, so we don't actually make cheese sandwiches here at p&p. Well, as far as I know we don't (but if we did, they'd probably be the best cheese sandwiches in the world...). When I'm over in Redmond I have to stroll across the bridge to Building 4 and buy one from the canteen, though it's worth the...

Last week I mused about how some instruction manuals ("guidance documents" in p&p-speak) are wonderfully accurate, really useful, and may even have helpful pictures. I guess the quality of the documentation depends to some extent on how much you pay for the product; and, hopefully, how dangerous...