Today I mooched around the new flat. I took the morning off in order to let in some gas safety inspectors. The gas company rang around lunchtime to say the inspectors were outside the apartment and no-one seemed to be home. I informed them that I was in fact inside, but no-one was ringing the buzzer. Eventually I realized that they were standing outside my old flat in Covent Garden *sigh*
Podcasts about Internet business models
I found a bunch of interesting podcasts while googling around tonight. The podcasts seem to be mostly about internet-based business models.
Weekend in Amsterdam!
Last weekend was spent back in Amsterdam. The highlight was probably Tony's Lame SuperHero Birthday Party. Helen has more photos on her blog. Tony messaged to say that everyone was meeting in Dam Square, and when we arrived there was a crowd of superheroes standing around - capes billowing. Tourists were coming over and asking to have their photos taken with the group. It was all too funny. I went as Pi Man, a super hero who's special power is the ability to recite Pi to 2 decimal places. I also had the lamest costume.
Linear Programming
Optimization problems are all the rage in finance, because they occur so often (or should occur often, as long as you're on top of the basics of pricing your trades). Enter the IBM DeveloperWorks article on GNU Linear Programming Kit.
Wordpress
Here's a list of some good minimalist Wordpress themes.
CoXis has a list and slide-show of his favourite wordpress themes, and there's definitely some nice ideas there.
Recurring Economic Falacies
Historian Scott Trask of the Mises Institute has published a great article on 10 economic falacies that have permeated their way through public thinking. Myth #1 was the broken window, which is basically the idea that a disaster has a positive effect on the economy. He also discusses the myth that war is a boon on the economy. The basic idea behind the myth is that a disaster like an oil spill gets double-counted when calculating GDP, because there is the initial outlay in the oil and also the cost of cleaning it up.
Lunch in the Sun
What could be better? Stretching out in the beer garden of the Edinboro Castle in Cambden on a nice sunny day. Burgers and beer and friends. Helen even tried to keep me cool by spilling beer on my lap!
Back from New York
Helen and I arrived back from New York to utter chaos at Heathrow. The British had arrested a bunch of people planning to blow up flights en route to the US, and as a consequence airports across the country were on high alert. People trying to fly out of Heathrow had been let through to the departure lounge after checking in all their carry-on luggage. Most of the outgoing flights were subsequently cancelled, so everyone was forced to go back out through immigration again. Consequently the queue at immigration snaked across most of the airport. I was quite surprised that it only took us an hour and a half or so to clear immigration. This was despite flying on emergency passports, as I had lost our passports in New York, along with my new MacBook, my video ipod, and my PSP *sigh* Oh well, all technology should be disposable, neh?
So I'm back to using my old 17" powerbook again, and my old iPod. I've tried to cheer myself up by buying an external La Clie 1Terabyte drive... you know what? It worked!
We had a fantastic time in New York. It's been 10 years since we lived in an apartment on West 60th and the city has changed quite a bit, besides the obvious lack of the twin towers. For some reason it didn't seem quite as high octane as I remember it. Maybe that's because I live in London now, so my standards for intensity has gone up quite a bit. I love all the high buildings littering the place. Central Park is also a wonderful thing to have plonked in the middle of your city. I also remember New Yorkers as being a lot ruder. Everyone we met was very nice and polite.
Calamity in New York
Last night we arrived in New York, and in my jet-lagged state I left my bag containing our passports and my notebook in the back of the taxi :(
Helen and I are staying at the Hotel Elysee on 60 East 54th Street, phone (212) 753 1066. If you find my bag and passports there will be a reward!
World Cup, Berlin
We've just come back from Berlin, where we saw Ukraine versus Tunisia battle it out in a World Cup football match. The atmosphere, the crowds, the feeling of celebration was everywhere! I've created a video podcast of our trip that you can download here (mp4). I've also uploaded a Quicktime that might be easier to view if you don't have iTunes installed